Latest / The Breakfast Club / Emory Jones Speaks On Puma Mixtape, Brand Evolution, Nipsey Hussle, Jay-Z Legacy + More

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Emory Jones Speaks On Puma Mixtape, Brand Evolution, Nipsey Hussle, Jay-Z Legacy + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Morning.
• 0:00
  Speaker 2: Everybody's DJ Envy, Charlamagne the God. We are the Breakfast Club.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: You got a special guest.
• 0:05
  Speaker 3: In the building, Emery Jones. Emery, welcome back. How's it
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: feeling feel good?
• 0:11
  Speaker 4: I see these beautiful cheers.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Y'all got different studio, different energy, a.
• 0:14
  Speaker 4: Little bigger, getting a little more money.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Trying.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Trying to keep up with y'all.
• 0:20
  Speaker 4: It shows.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: I asked you the other night, man, because you know
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: you here celebrating the fifty years of hip hops. It's
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: a lot going on. You got the Humble Souls mixtape,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: you know, the Booker Hole that they got at the
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Brooklyn Public Library. And I asked you the other night
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: when I saw you after that premiere, did you see
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: all of this for you and your team?
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: Absolutely not. I mean you see winning, of course, you
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: you know, you get into it. You wake up every
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: day like I'm gonna win, you know what I mean,
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: that's the mentality like win. But there's no way in
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: the world you've seen this when.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: You when you see the play set up from from
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: from early on, what was the what was the finish
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: line at that point when you were having initial conversations
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: like what was the finish line?
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: But because what was success at that time.
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: I think it was different finish lines. Right. The first
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: finish line was like how do you get out the
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: projects and make it the our sixty State street? Right?
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: That was that was a win, right to get out
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: of you know, and you know down the block, but
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: you breathing room, right, and then you know from there.
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: It's like when you watch NASCAR, I'm looking at the car, right,
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: it's a season, so you got to get by race
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: by race and at the end of the day, if
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: I if I continue to stay on the podium throughout
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: the year, my chances are winning are great. I don't
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: mean I gotta win every race, but if I'm on
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: the podium, there's only three spots on the podium, my
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: point's going to continue to put me in a position
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: to win, right, And I think that's how I looked
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: at it. If we stay on the podium even through
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: them years, where was though you know, ain't no albums,
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: ain't no boom. Where you stay on the podium, my chance,
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: our chances of winning and having a dynasty that you know,
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: the way we have, it's greater, you know what I mean.
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: So I think we just looked at it as chapters
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: always like like I said that that point system.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: With a hustler that was like, man, we ain't doing
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: no rap. It's too much money in these streets. We
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: staying in the rap.
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: I mean in the beginning because you know, for me
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: a kid, I don't understand that, right, I don't. I
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: don't see it, And I'm like, you know what we're doing.
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: But then it came a point whereas though I'm like, okay,
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: let's go, but then you're not seeing the results. So
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: if you come from eating, you're like, wait a minute,
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: what we doing? Like it ain't adding up, you know.
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: So it's like you had to get past that stage
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: of just like it's supposed to be instant gratification, right,
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: it's a process like everything else. And once I realized that,
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: it was like it was a little too late by
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: the time I realized that because I had to go,
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: you know, a little vacation.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: You know, I was gonna ask when did you get
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: to a place in your life where you could let
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: your guard down?
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Right, because through the whole time in the streets, your.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: God was up.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: When you was locked up, guards was up. I'm sure
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: when you came home at first, guards was up. When
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: did you finally get to a place where you could
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: put your guards down?
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: Honestly, for me to be to this point, your guards up,
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: but you got you know, you jabbing. So when you're jabbing,
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: you got one guard up and you're jabbing. That's the
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: only way to survive, right. You gotta deal with people
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: and be in places that you know you ain't gotta
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: be in, but you gotta deal with it. So to
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: put yourself in these situations, you got to put your
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: guard down something like just to walk into that situation.
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: So I've always done that to get to this point,
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: but I think in the last couple of years it's
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: been that time where as though you let it all go,
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: you let it all go and be like, you know what,
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: I ain't you know, I can let go of all that,
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: you know what I mean, not y'all. It's no, I
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: don't even like talking about the old story past. Yeah,
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: of course, you know what I mean. Because it's like
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: someone one of my friends hit me one day and
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: was like, yo, you know it's the such and such
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: year anniversary. Came home and I was like, yo, I
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: forgot that date a long time ago, Like I forgot
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: that data because I don't want that to be such
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: a significant part of history, you know what I'm saying, Like,
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: don't get me wrong, it's a part of it. And
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: and I'm you know, I embrace it. I'm not you know,
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: I don't turn from it. But it's like I'm gonna
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: I'm not gonna let that be something I'm gonna celebrate
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: for the rest of my life. Like when I came home, Like.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: It's not too many people who can come home and
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: make the transition that you did, though, Like I almost
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: feel like it should be like a case study on
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: how to do your big come home and then like,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: you know, really acclimate yourself to society.
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: It's a difficult situation, man, it's not It's not simple, right,
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: And don't get me wrong, I got a support system,
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: but some other people have support systems too, and it's
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: just not as simple as people think, just to adjust
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: right or just to you know, you know, walk through
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: and find that next thing, right, because when you're in,
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: you're so in the streets that you don't even give
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: yourself a chance to separate. Because when you're bidding, you
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: still got to be in tune with the world. And
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: most people want to be too in tune. It's like
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: being in the system. We can wake up and know
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: what happened in the hood before people in the hood know.
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: That's how people are tuned, that's how you you know,
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: you function it because at the end of the day,
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: the system, you know, if you're in the real world,
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: the system is a part of the real world, especially
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: when you're doing dirt. You know what I'm saying, when
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: when you're in the world, So it really goes hand
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: in hand. So you really don't have a chance to
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: move forward because the world is still happening. Situations that
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: left the streets are still coming up. Life is still
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: going on. Family is all always something going on. So
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: a lot of times you don't even get a chance
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: to shake it and understand what's my next move, and
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: then you get back here, regardless of how much time
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: you do, bene done, you haven't had time to shake it,
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: and then you come jump right in the fire. It's
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: not it's not a simple situation.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: I was going to ask we're dealing with with Jay,
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: how much pressure do you have for you?
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: Right?
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: And the reason I asked right, you know, when we
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: listen to whole records and he says Amory the lipshot
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: niggas and Emory done got the kochain on and you know.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: Talking about just so much pressure because of what.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: You've done when you came home and how you were
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: able to create this, this this empire for yourself.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: Is that pressure on you at all?
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: No, I think he says it in a way whereas
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: though to those who you know, always look at things
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: for an angle, you make it a thing. I think
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: for him it's more of an inspiring the next person
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: to be like, Yo, that's my guy. I'm gonna speak
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: on my guy. But it's really telling the guys like yo,
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: you can you know. I mean, it's a lot of
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: opportunity in that for you to do that, right, So
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: I don't look at it as pressure. I don't take
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: it as pressure because I feel like, you know, when
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: somebody see me doing it, regardless what, regardless of how
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: it's deliver, that means they can set back and say
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: I have a chance to do it, you know what
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: I mean? Like when you know you have a chance
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: and you give yourself a thought to say you have
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: a chance, anything's possible.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: That's what you represented me. You represent you know, hope
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: in a real way. I was even watching the interview
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: you do with a clue, and I think your mindset
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: is a mindset a lot of people don't have. When
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: you said you knew what you were doing in the
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: street and said there's only three ways up is jail,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: death for that small possibility you might make it. So yes,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: you said that helped you do your big.
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: I mean think about it because you know, we look
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: at you know, what's going on in the world, and
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: we always analyzing everybody, We always opinionated, We always you
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: know what I mean. It's like, nah, it's like one
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: thing about the game. First thing you have to understand
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: and lock in your mind from day one. That's only
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: them three options. You have to be clear with yourself, right.
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: A lot of times people don't be clear with that, right.
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: And I understand because you know, we say we getting
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: into it, you know, to change you know, family's life,
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: and you know, get out the hood. And it's like,
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: when you think about it, most of that is false
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: because soon as you get a chance and you know
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: you make that first say you make twenty thousand, right,
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: that's twenty thousand you ain't have so imagine if you
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: do something with that twenty thousand that you never had.
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: You can stop right there. Then you take it further. Okay,
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: you get past the twenty. Some make a hundred, some
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: make two hundred. Okay, you make you make two hundreds.
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: That's two hundred thousand you never had and you got
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: a chance to do something with it. But guess what,
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: we don't look at that. We want some more, right
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: and then you know when everything get thrown and this
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: is the first thing we do is blame the system.
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: Right at the end of the day. You know, when
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: you choose to step in that world, to step into
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: that world, so I gotta be I gotta deal with
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: the consequences and hold that. So that's why I set
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: them three you know them three things of you know,
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: it's only death jail, and it's only a slim chance
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: to get through. And that's something that everybody should look at,
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: regardless what. And guess what. I'm never gonna tell somebody
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: what he should do or not do, because at that
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: moment you can't tell me. And right down to the marrow,
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: if things get a little twisted, you can't tell me
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: what I should do. Is what I do it don't do.
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna do what I have to. So I'm never
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: gonna say it from a lens of what somebody should do.
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: It's just the reality is it's only them three things.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: What do you think morals change for both the streets
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: and the industry? Right, you look at a lot of
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: the things that you've been through, and you can see
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: people change right now. At one time it was let's say,
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: somebody hustled or somebody was in the industry. They did
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: it for a reason. They did it to get out
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: the hood, they did it to make money. But now
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: it seems like it's almost it's a change for clout
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: with it's people's morals have changed. For social media, I.
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: Think I think we're using I think we were putting
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: too much blame on social media. I think sometimes that's
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: just that's just who we are.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: All these people cut like that.
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: I mean, I mean social media helps amplifize it, right,
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: social media help it, you know us look at it
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: and then for those who are not strong enough to
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: understand it can just to it. But I think a
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: lot of it comes from who you are already was
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: who he was for it. It's just you know, different
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: levels to it you feel. I mean, it's it's different
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: levels to I think. You know, the reality is sometimes
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: we forget to use social media to work for us,
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: you know what I mean. That's it. I mean, it's
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: it's it's a gifting a curse at the same time.
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: But if you use it correctly, it can really benefit
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: you in some ways. If you don't, it can really
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: you know, not benefit you, but still benefit you. Right,
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: Like it's a lot of people winning. I can't not,
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: you know, I'd rather for something to do that then
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: go do some other dumbs, you know, some of a
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: lot of other foolishness somebody can do.
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: Let me ask you if if social media was around
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: back in the day when when when you guys first
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: started out, do you think that you could be where
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: you're at now or do you think social media would
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: have tarnished that a little bit because some of some
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: of the what made I think not only Rockefeller but
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: you and Jay.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: And Ty and Biggs and Dame was a little bit
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: of the not knowing, you know.
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: I mean, like you know, I would go to the
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: office all the time and it was that mistique there's
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: someone well you know, you just didn't see it.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: But now it's kind of like if y'all.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: We can tell where you're at before you before you
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: tell somebody, right, because you know, I mean like, oh
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: there's emery in France, you know.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: I mean it's right.
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: I tell people all the time. It's like especially you
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: know when you get people and they take a picture, right,
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: and the first thing they want to do is go
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: throw the picture up because you want to be in
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: real time. And it's like if the picture means something,
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: it means something to a next year or the year
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: after that. It's how you use the picture, right. It
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: don't have to be in real time. I think even
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: in time when social media start, it still takes you.
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: Social media have been around how long.
• 12:14
  Speaker 5: Year?
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: Twenty plus years and Jay have made it his business.
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: Be like, I'm not messing with that. That's his choice, right.
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: So even at that moment, it's here and it's here
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: and it's big, and it's like you say, you can
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: amplify whatever you're doing with it if you use it correctly.
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: It's just still having that moment of saying, you know,
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: I'm doing it and not doing it like for me,
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: you know, I love I love the fact that you know,
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: social media give people a chance to just you know,
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: be whatever they choose to be at that moment is
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: up to you. If you want to take it in
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: and believe it, don't believe it. How serious you want
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: to do it. You know, it's life, you know what
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: I mean. It's really what we see every day. So
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: we can't blame it social you go back to the neighborhood.
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: It's the same energy and the same different things happening
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: all day long.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Well, you've been getting fresh for a long time, so
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: it makes sense that you the head a lifestyle of
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: rock Nation and the co found the paper flames. But
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: how did you show off the fits back in the
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: day with no social media?
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: With mean it was like you said, it's like you first,
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: you want if your crew respect.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: That, it goes there.
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: It's like it's like, you know, if your crew respect that,
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: it goes there. And then if you're traveling around, like
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: I said, I look at the world is three universal languages, right,
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: regardless of where you're from, who you are, what you're doing.
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: Like I'm gonna always say this, music, sports, and fashion, right,
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: that's that universal language right for me, I've always used
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: fashion to be that put your guard down because you
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: walk in the room before you know who we are
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: talk right, What's the first thing we do is humans sight.
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: So if I give you that, you know, fresh, you
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: walking the like, even if you don't come say nothing
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: to me. Mentally, you're like, man, he did that, you
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: know what I mean? So you already didn't put that
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: guard down, right? So I didne got past one hurd
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: or already right, And I just I just think, you know,
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: expression of fashion is just it's not think about it.
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: It's not the clothes. You still gotta get in them, right,
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: So it's like the human the human you still we
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: buy the same clothes. It's just the human side. It
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: really expresses you in different ways. And it's always been
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: me because being a so called to my brother as
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: a country boy, I got to strike against me already
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: because they like, you know, we don't have the the
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: top stores and the boom, so you're not expecting you
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: to be it's fresh. So now when I come in
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: and use that as my moods, muse I'm fresh. So
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: it's like, oh okay, you know. So it's it's just
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: one of them things.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: People act like they're not as country as us down south.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: They match everything, they do the same thing. Colors.
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: We do a pair of air Force ones.
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: That's why as long as we match it with a
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: pair of air Force ones and tims kind.
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: That's the balance. That's the balance, that's that's the balance us.
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: You know, somewhere else they're gonna make sure, you know
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: the night he got the foulk colors in it. You
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: know what I'm saying.
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: That I was gonna ask, you know what, how difficult
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: was it to turn Puma into a company.
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: That the culture really loves?
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: Because because growing up, you know, of course we were
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: into you know, nikes and Jordan's because of Jordan. Of course,
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: the deed is because of run DMC at times, but
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: Puma's we weren't really into Pumas. I don't think we've
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: ever seen any of our favorite people wearing Puma. So
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: there was the Puma I call them the classic right,
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: that's like the Air Force Ones. There's the shelltops, and
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: then there's that pool. I don't even know what they're called.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: Clyde, the clod right, the Clyde Clyde.
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: But that's the point, right. I think that was the
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: part for me was having a real conversation about Puma
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: for us, even though it's a German company. For us,
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: the reason why we know Poma was because of a
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: black man, Clyde Fraser Clyde. Like, so I just had
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: to tap back in the understand you know, letting the
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: world dig back to understand that part, right, and then
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: you walk it down from there, right, like we should
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: be in it should be in the conversation because it's
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: been there. You think about it. Clyde was the first
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: ever to have his own sneaker as an athlete, right,
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: and then like it say, when you look at Puma
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: for us, you think about Clyde. First, you don't think
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: about nothing. Now you think about Clyde. Then you know,
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: you go back to that moment when Tommy Smith at
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: the Olympics, Like it's so many iconic moments from Pele,
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying, Like, there's so many iconic
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: moments that it was like, let me go tap back
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: into that and walk that process down, right, because if
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: you if you wake up, I remember when I used
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: to have a small foot, and I you know, I
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: couldn't wait till my foot grow so I can get
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: the big boy's shoes because you know, you know when
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: you got a small foot. If they got the bubble,
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: you ain't got the on your shoe, you know what
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: I'm saying. It was always something missing from the little
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: kid's shoe. Right. So it was like and I got
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: my first pres of suade pumas, right, I remember that
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: because it was like regardless that it wasn't as high
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: as a prayer of Jordan's or whatever the case may be.
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: It was the luxury of Swede, like to put on
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: a sway shure that. But like where we're from, you
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: just don't wake up and know it's Swades, you know
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: what I'm saying. So it was like having that moment
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: with an iconic brand. I know what to talk. I
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: know with that because that's why I could walk in
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: the room and say what was your first prayer Pumas?
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: And everybody gonna be like, yo, I had a press ways,
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: they gonna tell you when they got them, where they
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: got them from, what was going on? So I just
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: used that thinking to walk it down. The thought was
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: for a company like poomh, they think if we make
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: product for the new generation, that's the thing, and it's like, nah,
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: they got too much. They got too much mental. They
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: mental was already tooking up Nike and Jordan got that already.
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: You can't win that mental space, right, So I got
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: to dig in and go back to history and heritage
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: and let product design catch up later. And it was
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: a process. You gotta figure this twelve years For me.
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: Was the most difficult part of it because I also
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: seen a couple of artists that you know would signed
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: to Puma and then you know, I guess they didn't
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: wear it all the time, like when they're doing shows,
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: you still see them with Jordan's or made popular.
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, Emery Jones made Puma popular without even spitting the ball.
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah. But that's and that's the thing, right, I think
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: when you look at it, I don't expect them to
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: wear Puma every day, right. Think about that time when
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: Jay had STT Carter sneaker was booming, right, and it
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: was a moment whereas though he was setting courtside or
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: somewhere and he's with Phil Knight, but that he's running
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: datas at that moment, because that's what we are as culture, right.
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: You can't put somebody in a box and say you
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: know this. If you do that, then it's not real.
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: It's not real. Like you need somebody express themselves. It's
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: like today I feel like this. So this is the
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: reason why I'm throwing on my Nikes today, or this
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: is the reason why I'm throwing on my didas to
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: day because like you said, them, dada is gonna take
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: you back to the run DMC days or the such
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: and such days as a moment. So for me, I
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: don't like when somebody say they have to be that
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: regardless what. Don't get me wrong, I wish you would
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: work more, you know what I mean when you when
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: you when you can find yourself in it. But I
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: don't I don't expect them to be that because I
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: feel like now it's not gonna feel real, it's not
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: gonna come off right.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: When it comes to fashion, do you feel like hip
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: hop is doing a good job of, you know, highlighting
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: it during this fifty if year of hip hop? I
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: feel like it's been just about the music, but I
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: feel like fashion is just as important.
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think with the music, fashion is there, right.
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: I think you know there'd be times whereas though right
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: now you hear about the music because it started with
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: the music, right, But I think you know you're gonna
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: see moments where was though fashion it's gonna play a part.
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: You can't have the music without the fashion and the
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: fashion without the music, right, So I think we just
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: got to, you know, let the time go, because really
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: what next month is when when it really hits in
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: fifty I think it's August, like August tenth eleven somewhere
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: around there. It's really that.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: Date because they're bad. We ain't know this man.
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So I think you know you're gonna see the moments,
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: and I think you don't have to force the moment
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: of fashion and music. I think it all lives together.
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: And I think you know us paying homage is just
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: fifty years is there? It's like we all we all
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: hear you see, you know what I mean, it's all that.
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: One thing I would say that that that I thought
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: that you did that was very smart, was like you said,
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: it's all about how we dress.
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: So people were.
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: More connected tonight or more connected to Adidas because it
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: was a tracksuit right be could where everything had to
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: toe all the way down and it matched. Woman didn't
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: have that at first that I seen, or the stores
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: weren't selling it until you sort of making those tracksuits.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: Now when I wear. If I want to wear Pumas,
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: I could wear a.
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: Whole set because I don't want to be the dude
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: that wears the deeda tracksuit and have some Pumas on.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: It just didn't feel right.
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: But that's, you know, I'm gonna be political correct right now.
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: When you look at a Puma T seven track suit
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: that's like.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: From sixty nine, but we couldn't find it.
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: And that's the thing. So at a moment as a brand,
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: you know, we're trying to get in the mix of
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: get back into the you know, the realm of culture conversation,
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: but we don't have the product in place to do
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: that at that moment, right And I was having this
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: conversation in Germany one time, and I'm sitting there telling
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: the CEO, like, yo, we hot right now, but you
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: can't go to the store and get a Puma track suit.
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: And then there's somebody else in the room, who's another
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: big shot in the room, like yes you can, and
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: I'm like you can't. You know what I mean? Just
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: understanding that we're bringing all this heat and getting back traction,
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: but you ain't got nothing for the guy for what
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: they want because what you're so busy trying to chase
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: that next thing, and I'm like, nah, man, like you
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: dealing with kids. You see the kids now they're gonna
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: put on a Puma track shoop and still put their
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: Air Force ones on. Right, you gotta understand that, you know,
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: first thing.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Last, my god, No, I'm mean be arrested.
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: For that now. I mean, I know some of the
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: most fashionable guys love the cross brands. That's just what
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: they do. Like for me, it's not for me, but
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: I know a lot of people that do that. So
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: it's I think when you look at it, that T
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: seven tracksuit was the fit. It was just the fit
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: of it what made the kid like, oh, I like
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: this fit and I love the thing. And you know
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: I ain't getting a wait for my Air Force ones.
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: I'm okay with that.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: Was it difficult to get in some of these stores.
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: Yes, because you gotta figure if you ain't been around,
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: you know what I mean, it's hard to come get
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: some space. Like you got to earn that space again
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: just because you put what I don't mean they're supposed
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: to just open the door. So's it's still an everyday
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: process now, you know what I mean. Like we there,
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: But I don't think our presence is what it should be.
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: But I think it goes back. It gives you the
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: opportunity of how to make your own store presence what
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: it is, your own online what it is. Because if
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: I base what I'm doing off a whole sale, that
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: means another store can never show the world completely what
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: Puma is as a brand. You don't have enough space
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: right now.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Everybody looks at uh Nipsey, the good brother Nipsey. You
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: look at him as the icon he is right now,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: but you did a Puma deal with him a few
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: years ago? How many like four or five years ago?
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: It was? It was, it was, it was a while,
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: and it was funny, funny. I'm glad you said that
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: because when I did this mixtape show, the idea came
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: to do some technology with it. And I'm not a
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: tech guy, but my partner is, and I was like, okay.
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: But the reason why I really wanted to do it
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: because the first time I seen that tech was a
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: nip store ninety at the store, like the whole store
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: was set up virtual, like you walk in and you
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: could take your phone and scan the wall and video
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: and content would come up. You take the tag in
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: the shirt and scan it, and I was like, what
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: we're talking about a kid from Christshaw that Like, I'm like,
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: I'm in that blown away. I'm like, what the heck
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: is this right? So they even pay homage that way now,
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: you know, to keep that even going as a salute
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: to him, because I felt like then when we talked
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: about Puma, he was like, there's nowhere in the world
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: they gonna get a skinny tattoo gang banger a deal.
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: And I was like, man, I don't care what they think.
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: You an icon at that moment, Like, I'm like, you.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Back then.
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: The human side. It's back to the human side when
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: you when you when you were in front a special human,
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: you know the feeling of that. You know, people that
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: you really call close friends or people that not even
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: close friends, but when you do get to see him
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: and they special humans, and you know that that time
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: when you get to see him, he just was just
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: a special glow. Yeah, he was just a special, special
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: human being. And when you've seen that to deal with
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: and be involved in all that and grow up in that.
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: But then when you get to meet him in his spirit,
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: in his tone and his genius is like. Then I
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: was like, oh, it's like it goes back to yeah,
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: you're from La, but we're no different. It's like use
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: a use an icon at that moment. And from there
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: it was like I visioned him in a T seven
• 25:48
  Speaker 4: tracksuit in that moment, and from the time he wore
• 25:51
  Speaker 4: that tea Steven I've never seen nobody rock, never seen
• 25:55
  Speaker 4: nobody rock. It was like it was like meant for him.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: I even try to do my socks like it. I
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: can't do it. I can't do the way.
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: It was just meant for him, So you know when
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: something is meant I was like, man, it's like it
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: was just an honor for me. And the beautiful thing
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: about that was, at that moment, it wouldn't the craziest
• 26:17
  Speaker 4: amount of money or whatever. Him and his team understood
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: the value of partnership. Like when I seen that and
• 26:26
  Speaker 4: and Pum was seeing that, that made you be like, oh,
• 26:28
  Speaker 4: I want to be in partners with him forever because
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: you he understood partnership. He understood the value of I
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: tell people all the time, you go in to Pooora
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: and everybody wants deals and want to make money. You know,
• 26:41
  Speaker 4: I'm like, they're gonna pay you whatever, but I'm like,
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: the best way to get the best out of a
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: Poomer partnership is to realize how to make them work
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: for you. Give them what they want, but make the
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: machine work for you, and you can get way more
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: on top of it. They're gonna pay you whatever, but
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: you're gonna get way more out of it because it's
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: such a broad machine and they're good people like you
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: don't get in this world and find too many good
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: people in spaces, right, you know, no one's perfect, but
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: they're coming in with good intentions. So if you got
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: that and you know how to make the machine work
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: for you, I.
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: Was gonna ask, well, who was the first person you
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: gave a deal to in the industry, whether it was athlete, actor, artists.
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: Well, I didn't personally give it to him, but the
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: first one that I can say that I was a
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: part of, like we should do this with the launch
• 27:38
  Speaker 4: when we did the lunch poom withdeal.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: Way before uh see to the table.
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: When when she did the thing and she came in,
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: created brought a team in and it was it was
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: probably you know, it's still iconic, one of the best,
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: you know collabs partnerships we then, you know, and like
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: I said, this was this was during a period was
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: though she was fine in her greatness even more so,
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: it was like it's the same thing as before that.
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: And I remember, like, no one really knowed that till
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: I spoke on it, you know what I mean. It
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: was like because I was just set at the table
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: and I'm seeing who everybody wants to run for, and
• 28:14
  Speaker 4: I was like, I think you should go Solarge route,
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: and they like Slone and I'm like, think about it.
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: She the one at that moment that the people you
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: chasing are paying attention to. And I just looked at
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: it through that lens and they trust me on that
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: and it worked. So that helped, you know, me, for
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: me to be able to say, let's go this route
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: and go that route and go that round.
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: What made y'all go to Puma or Puma come to y'all?
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: What made that partnership happen? Because you know, we've known,
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: of course, Hove had sneakers with Nike, You've had sneakers
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: with Reebok. You know, he's had sneakers with all these
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: different sneaker brands. What was it about Puma that said
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: this could work.
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: I think at that moment, for me, I took on
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: the challenge because it was at a time where the
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: artists wanted to be in the sneaker, you know, to
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: tap in that space. So at that moment, Meet was,
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: you know, really one of the first ones boomer And
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: for me it was like our artists wanted to be
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: in that world, so I gotta go over here. But
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: for me, I looked at it through that lens of
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: I'm watching. At that time, my son was young and
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: kids thinking that the only way they was gonna be
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: cool was wearing Jordan Nikes, and they was alienating everyday kids.
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, you can't do that, you know what
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: I'm saying. You can't alienate the everyday kid thinking, you know,
• 29:32
  Speaker 4: putting them in that if you're not a cool kid.
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: You can't do that, you know, especially right now now
• 29:39
  Speaker 4: when we realize about mental health and everything else, Like
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: that's not helping the process there, right And I intentionally
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: did not wear Nikes or Jordan for a while. I
• 29:49
  Speaker 4: was like, I'm gonna wear every other brand just to
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: show him and his friends that you don't need that.
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: So it was just a mental thing to show you know,
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: and then I like to walk into the events we
• 29:59
  Speaker 4: was having it and we say we sneaker heads. You
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: just can't come in with the Jordan Nike or some
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: yeezy and say you're sneaker here. You gotta go and
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: dig upstrick, go dig up some things, because it's like, remember,
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: sneakers was the thing was though the culture turned them
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: into icons. Not taking nothing away from the Jordans of
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: the world and all that. You gotta figure, you gotta figure.
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: When Jordan one first came out, you know, no one
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: you could barely, you know, give.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: Them away for a while.
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: So then when the culture embraced it. You know what
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: I'm saying, that's the beauty of who we are. It's
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: the beauty while y'all got these beautiful chairs. Big new balance.
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: At one point, d m V is d m V
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: is new balance, kings huge. It ain't no, it ain't no,
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: it ain't no question, no knock and all due respect
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: to whoever that you know wear a new balance. But
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: DC and Baltimore it has been new balance forever. Like
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: just like you told well uptowns Air Force. One great
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: new balance has been that for DC and Ball forever.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: They're making a resurgence all of a sudden.
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: They winning right now. I mean I think when you
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: look at a brand who's you know, made in the
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: US's US brand. It's a you know, family owned brand,
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: and they stuck to their guns. And right now it's
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: in a in a place whereas though you get to
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: drive the car you want to drive. And I think
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: that's that's that's culture for you, right, It's a it's
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: a returning door. I remember when I first came home
• 31:27
  Speaker 4: and you know, New Balance was my thing. You know,
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: everybody everybody was like, ain't it because you got to
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: think about it, you know. But it's beautiful to see
• 31:39
  Speaker 4: because I think that's the that's the beauty of sneaker culture,
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: that's the beauty of fashion, that's the beauty of just
• 31:46
  Speaker 4: culture in general. Right. It's like when we when we
• 31:48
  Speaker 4: really put our grips in something.
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: They got a new designer tooever, do a new Balance.
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: Now in the last three years they got to I
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: don't know who it is, but that is the kid.
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: I think it's the kid from Queen's I'm not yeah,
• 32:00
  Speaker 4: but that the creative director is dope.
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: Like he's putting out designs that's dope and it doesn't matter.
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: Like he's just putting out dope designs and they're having them.
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: I know they must be having a hard time because
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: I never see new balance in the sneaker stores, and
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: if I do, it's not the ones that.
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: I see with the big n and the dope colors.
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: And the dope designs. So they're doing So let's talk
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: about this, this this mixtape.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: Now, hold on real quick. I want to stay the
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: fastest for one second. I want to pivot still in fashion,
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: but just the paper planes? Yes, how did you come
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: up with the idea of paper plane? Remember it was
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: twelve thirteen years ago. It was Rockaware still.
• 32:31
  Speaker 4: I think, well, you know what it was. It was
• 32:33
  Speaker 4: just going through that that that phase of Rockaware. When
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: I came home, Rockaway was still around, and you know, Jay,
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: it was like, you know what you want to do
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: in is fashion my thing? So it was like I
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: took on the challenge to say, let me go and
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: show the building that Rockaware is not dead. It's this fact.
• 32:49
  Speaker 4: It's just brand fatigue. Everybody to move on it. He's
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: not the brands. You know how we are with brands.
• 32:54
  Speaker 4: We move on. Ain't got nothing to do with the
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: designs just we move on the brands. We do that quick, right,
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: that's just the world. So I took that challenge on
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: just to show that part because at that moment it
• 33:06
  Speaker 4: was still like a men's side. It was still like
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: a fifty million dollar brand, even in the point when
• 33:11
  Speaker 4: everybody was like I'm not messing with that and this
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: then but it came a time it's like what was next?
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: And we had this young young designer and we bought
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: a die wei in from public school that we was
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: a creative director and you know, he's going back and
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: forth with this ideal and then then all of a
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: sudden came up with this plane and it was like, oh,
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: that's it. And then once you took it, you just
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: take a life of how do you build the narrative
• 33:39
  Speaker 4: and the story around it, you know what I mean,
• 33:41
  Speaker 4: and just continue to add to it. And my mission
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: and our mission has always been how can we continue
• 33:47
  Speaker 4: to inspire and help people imagine? So that's what that plane,
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: that plane took on a life because it's not about
• 33:53
  Speaker 4: the clothes. We're not selling your clothes, you know what
• 33:55
  Speaker 4: I mean, We're selling your feeling and wants you to
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: feel like you can be something else, and I think
• 34:02
  Speaker 4: that's more to me why it's a brand today, you
• 34:06
  Speaker 4: know what I mean? Like I said, I'm not gonna
• 34:07
  Speaker 4: go back. No one's ring vendor will. We're not going
• 34:10
  Speaker 4: to design something no different than somebody else's design. I
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: just think the meeting and the feeling of it, which
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: gives us life because when you look at it you
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: fast forward, it's the face of our whole company. Now.
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: But you mentioned brand fatigue, right, Why don't we see
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: brand fatigue and a lot of these white brands right
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: you look at you know, whether it's Gucci, Fendy, Louis Vauton,
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: you could say, Steve Madden, you can stay gap, you
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: could say, you know whatever.
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: You see brand fatigue.
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: They're still but there's still successful people wearing I feel
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: like with our coach a lot of times it's like
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: I feel like it's just like people not only slow
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: down wearing it, it's almost like they shit on it.
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: That's what we do, which is crazy.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: But don't we don't do it for the other brand.
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's just Alexander McQueen, like you don't see it,
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: you know, you might see it go up and down,
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: but it's still st Nobody ships on it.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: Our brands is.
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: Just whether it's football or rockawear or fat Farm or
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: showing what was Diddy ship.
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: Like, Yeah, it's like I feel like we turn our
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: back to it, like we ship on it.
• 35:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I don't think it's because it's fast. I just
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: think that's who we are. We wake up, we deal
• 35:16
  Speaker 4: with the thing was that we wake up every day
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: looking for what's next. That's what we then created with
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: this new It's like you wake up every single day
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: what's next? Because think about it being in New York, Right,
• 35:27
  Speaker 4: You've got the different barrels, right, the reason the thing
• 35:30
  Speaker 4: that separated Harlem, right, because Harlem was always coming in.
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: What was next? It's like you gotta what's the what's
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: the next thing. It's like during during the summertime when
• 35:41
  Speaker 4: the when the Rocker games going on, it's like it's
• 35:43
  Speaker 4: not even just closed cars. Everybody's coming in. What's the
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: new spaceship? Right, It's like that's the and it ain't
• 35:51
  Speaker 4: got to be the expensive car. It's like one years
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: then the station wagon. Right, you're gonna see a few guys,
• 35:57
  Speaker 4: we're gonna come through call it up their way up
• 36:00
  Speaker 4: their way next year is the coop such and s.
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: It's just we just we always that way. And I
• 36:07
  Speaker 4: think when you look at brands like Gucci and all
• 36:10
  Speaker 4: them before we came in the fold to say, you know,
• 36:14
  Speaker 4: we messing with them brands, look what they have been
• 36:16
  Speaker 4: through to solidify themselves to be in a position for
• 36:19
  Speaker 4: us to say, okay, let's go do that. Right, there's
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: a lot of history. There's a lot of history, you
• 36:24
  Speaker 4: know what I mean. It's like a lot of history
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: that I think with us. You see it in the hood, right,
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: you see it where we're from. We we quit the
• 36:35
  Speaker 4: you know, it's a restaurant right on the corner that's
• 36:37
  Speaker 4: black on but guess what to the Chinese. But it's
• 36:45
  Speaker 4: just you know, I think how we wired.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: But I think white ice is colder sometimes.
• 36:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but I think you see it now, whereas though
• 36:52
  Speaker 4: you have to say that, you see the world we
• 36:55
  Speaker 4: were embracing us more and more and you and you
• 36:58
  Speaker 4: can respect that because you see it and it's a
• 37:01
  Speaker 4: great thing, you know what I mean, It's a great
• 37:03
  Speaker 4: thing to see. We can talk about what happened before
• 37:05
  Speaker 4: it is what it is. But I think it then
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: helped us get to a point where was though, people
• 37:09
  Speaker 4: are waking up right now and like I'm embracing us,
• 37:14
  Speaker 4: our brands, what we're doing. I'm talking about really supporting
• 37:17
  Speaker 4: it and really going for it. And that's a beautiful thing.
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: It's like a growth thing, right, It's a growth thing.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: I remember watching you in the Rock Nation office about
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: a decadego. You was walking around the office throwing the paper,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: playing around. I was like, why are you throwing this
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: paper playing around? I remember asking you that. You was like,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: that's that's what's next. That's all you said, that's what's next.
• 37:34
  Speaker 4: I mean, that's the beauty of right, because you when
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: I can have this conversation and I can have somebody
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: talk about that moment of there, then it's bigger than
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: the clothes. And that's what I'm saying. It's like when
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: you look at y'all, right, when y'all started this breakfast club, right,
• 37:51
  Speaker 4: this is bigger than just being on the radio. You
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: know what I mean? This is this is culture in
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: its own way. So when I walk here, I don't
• 37:59
  Speaker 4: look at y'all is just from the race. I don't
• 38:01
  Speaker 4: look at the program, right, and I think that's what
• 38:04
  Speaker 4: the program, that's what that's what the plane represents. It's like,
• 38:07
  Speaker 4: you know what, we're flying around that program because even
• 38:10
  Speaker 4: though being here is a program, right, beautiful big program,
• 38:14
  Speaker 4: but it's still a box. It's a program. That plane
• 38:17
  Speaker 4: represent culture. We've never been programmed. That's why we fifty
• 38:22
  Speaker 4: years hip hop right now, right because you can't program it.
• 38:26
  Speaker 4: You can't, like, if we do, let the world program
• 38:29
  Speaker 4: hip hop, then we wouldn't be here now. And that's
• 38:34
  Speaker 4: the beauty of being in this moment right even to
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: be a part of it, even all of us, because
• 38:39
  Speaker 4: we all apart, we all grew up off of it.
• 38:40
  Speaker 4: We all got some DNA of that. That's what pushes
• 38:45
  Speaker 4: us to say, I can be the real estate guy.
• 38:49
  Speaker 4: I can be, you know, the entrepreneur over here. I
• 38:51
  Speaker 4: can be that this hip hop culture thing gave us
• 38:55
  Speaker 4: that lens that we can do.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: That absolutely real. Now, what did the name Home Souls
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: come from? When when I hear the name, of course
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: I can see how it's spelled his shoes. But that's
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: what I think of when I think of Emery Jones,
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: a humble soul.
• 39:07
  Speaker 4: And I think when I when I the artist that's
• 39:09
  Speaker 4: a part of this. You know, when they brought him
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: in to the office. I think Sherry and Omar Rock Nation,
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: they did a great job of just who they tapping
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: into far as talent. You know what I'm saying. It's like,
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: you gotta find what makes sense for you, right, And
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: I think they tapping in and not just some talent individuals.
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: They good kids, they're good humans, right. And I think
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: when you brought it, when they brought him into me
• 39:32
  Speaker 4: before any of this, and I'm like, yo, what you
• 39:35
  Speaker 4: ain't got a record, you ain't got nothing, but you're good,
• 39:37
  Speaker 4: so you know me? Shall me? I'm like, whatever i
• 39:39
  Speaker 4: can do. I'm men, Absolutely, I'm men. I'm not gonna
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: wait for you to get a hit. And then it's
• 39:44
  Speaker 4: like show up and be like I'm in right. So
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: over the years when you when you when you build
• 39:49
  Speaker 4: these relationships and bonds, and I had a chance to
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: do this, I was like, you know what, this is
• 39:54
  Speaker 4: the perfect time to do this because I feel like
• 39:57
  Speaker 4: in the world at this moment was so much going on, right, humbly,
• 40:03
  Speaker 4: like you need some of that to get through. Like,
• 40:07
  Speaker 4: don't get me wrong, I stand up every day and
• 40:09
  Speaker 4: I'm proud of everything I do. And you know, I'm
• 40:12
  Speaker 4: you know, put that foot forward and salute myself and
• 40:15
  Speaker 4: love it. I get saluted, But I think the humbleness
• 40:19
  Speaker 4: of me getting here and being able to come back here,
• 40:22
  Speaker 4: like I remember, you know at a time, was some
• 40:24
  Speaker 4: people here, you know, y'all open the door with open arms,
• 40:28
  Speaker 4: and we came and had a real conversation. I don't
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: think I had a real conversation till now having it again,
• 40:35
  Speaker 4: but from that moment, right, because you know, you felt
• 40:39
  Speaker 4: the humbleness in it as you see what I was doing,
• 40:42
  Speaker 4: but you know the humble side of it. So when
• 40:46
  Speaker 4: these guys, I felt like they that's what they was,
• 40:48
  Speaker 4: and I just flipped the souls because we're doing sneakers
• 40:50
  Speaker 4: and it's all just you know, that's that's hip hop, right,
• 40:53
  Speaker 4: double and tandras right. So it was like flip the souls.
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: But I think that they just good.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: People, convincent man, fire, phenomenal, phenomenal.
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean think about it. You gotta take Ruben.
• 41:07
  Speaker 4: Look at look who he's under. He's under a real
• 41:10
  Speaker 4: humble cap nine one Guru ra that that right there.
• 41:18
  Speaker 4: So when you take that and you get to get
• 41:21
  Speaker 4: that season every day and that toolige every day, it
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: is like it could only get you. And then he's look, man,
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: his parents is African man, so you got to figure
• 41:29
  Speaker 4: they came from Africa and he's like that first generation here.
• 41:33
  Speaker 4: So you take all that going on and and and
• 41:37
  Speaker 4: then you give him some opportunity to help change his
• 41:39
  Speaker 4: family life. Hey, it's the perfect thing. I just thought
• 41:45
  Speaker 4: the name was just perfect.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: What made you reach out to Clue and get him
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: back in his mix tape?
• 41:49
  Speaker 4: Bag man? Listen when when when we did it? Think
• 41:52
  Speaker 4: about it. We brought all these artists together four days
• 41:55
  Speaker 4: to la. They have never been in the studio together
• 41:58
  Speaker 4: four days. Four days have been the studio together, never
• 42:01
  Speaker 4: hung out, most of them meeting each other at that
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: moment in real time. And we got eighty percent of
• 42:06
  Speaker 4: this project done in four the ays. So it was
• 42:09
  Speaker 4: just the energy, the synergy, right. So when we was done,
• 42:12
  Speaker 4: it was raw. The team was set back, like, Yo,
• 42:15
  Speaker 4: if we're gonna do a mixtape, we got to reach
• 42:18
  Speaker 4: back and figure out who's gonna host this? And we
• 42:21
  Speaker 4: got this. We got this poster in the in the
• 42:24
  Speaker 4: office in my office about we did a board and
• 42:26
  Speaker 4: everybody rolled in there. We put it this survey the
• 42:29
  Speaker 4: best uh, mixtapes ever, and you know, everybody's you know,
• 42:34
  Speaker 4: they're young, so they talking, you know, all the things
• 42:37
  Speaker 4: that I really, you know, I know about. But mixtapes
• 42:40
  Speaker 4: to me was different.
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: Growing up.
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: Mixtapes was a pot of gumbo. They wouldn't they wouldn't
• 42:45
  Speaker 4: album albums. They was a pot of gumbo. And you
• 42:48
  Speaker 4: you know, that's what I grew up on. That's what
• 42:50
  Speaker 4: that was my Internet and social media to the world
• 42:53
  Speaker 4: before with social media, because I could find an artist
• 42:56
  Speaker 4: from North Carolina, Texas don't want a mixtape, And they
• 43:02
  Speaker 4: came and they had the board and out of all
• 43:05
  Speaker 4: the you know that new generation stuff, it was two
• 43:08
  Speaker 4: names on the board. It was from before DJ Clue
• 43:14
  Speaker 4: and then they had Flex on that right and my
• 43:18
  Speaker 4: team shy in. I gotta give her a credit. She
• 43:21
  Speaker 4: kept saying Clue. Her thing was Clue, like she was
• 43:24
  Speaker 4: animate Clue. And I was like, you know, I can't
• 43:27
  Speaker 4: you know me, I don't like asking people, you know,
• 43:30
  Speaker 4: I don't want to feel like But then I thought
• 43:34
  Speaker 4: about it and I was like, you know what Clue
• 43:37
  Speaker 4: for me? Clue family without even being family. I was
• 43:40
  Speaker 4: gone doing all that. But when you you know, he's
• 43:43
  Speaker 4: a part of the dynasty, the dynasty and part of
• 43:46
  Speaker 4: you know what helped me be me right and helped
• 43:48
  Speaker 4: me get through and mine. So I look at it
• 43:51
  Speaker 4: his family. I don't look at it no more or
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: less right. We ain't never got hang. I look at
• 43:55
  Speaker 4: his family. So we reached out and I had a
• 43:58
  Speaker 4: conversation with him, and I just broke it down to
• 44:00
  Speaker 4: him what was really going on and why I was
• 44:03
  Speaker 4: doing it and the reason why I was doing it.
• 44:05
  Speaker 5: He was in.
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: He was so into that, like giving the artists a
• 44:09
  Speaker 4: platform again without being programmed and doing this and then
• 44:13
  Speaker 4: taking the sneaker was though I didn't need a mixtape
• 44:15
  Speaker 4: to sell a sneaker, but taking the platform of Puma
• 44:18
  Speaker 4: and foot Locker and saying, Okay, I'm gonna do this
• 44:21
  Speaker 4: mixtape when we merge them together, but let these artists
• 44:24
  Speaker 4: have a runway from that, and then they can drive
• 44:28
  Speaker 4: off and drive their own car to wherever. We don't
• 44:30
  Speaker 4: own the music. I don't get nothing off of this.
• 44:32
  Speaker 4: You feel what I'm saying, Like, yes, rock Nation is
• 44:35
  Speaker 4: putting it together, but the artists own their own songs.
• 44:38
  Speaker 4: So it's like you get to drive off and do
• 44:41
  Speaker 4: what you want. He was like, I'm in right, without
• 44:44
  Speaker 4: even hearing the music, right, I was like, nah, let me.
• 44:47
  Speaker 4: I got on a plane, came to New York and
• 44:51
  Speaker 4: played it for him like and I'm like I had
• 44:55
  Speaker 4: to play it for him because I'm like, this is
• 44:56
  Speaker 4: the time. I need you to wrap your arms around it,
• 44:59
  Speaker 4: you know, mold it and make sure it's that and
• 45:03
  Speaker 4: that's what Clue can do, right. And I was like, here,
• 45:08
  Speaker 4: so it ain't like I'm coming and this is our
• 45:10
  Speaker 4: my pride, this is our project, this is us like
• 45:13
  Speaker 4: you know, like I tell the artist, this ain't my
• 45:15
  Speaker 4: sneaker no more. This is our sneaker. Like So he
• 45:19
  Speaker 4: came in and wrapped his arm around and I got
• 45:21
  Speaker 4: to go in the studio with him in Duro and
• 45:23
  Speaker 4: I was like, come on, man, I'm like a kid.
• 45:26
  Speaker 4: I'm like, I'm like a kid watching you know. You
• 45:30
  Speaker 4: got I got outside like mixing and and I'm like,
• 45:34
  Speaker 4: so it's I'm having a moment myself. And it's like, oh,
• 45:38
  Speaker 4: we get to add a page to this fifty year
• 45:41
  Speaker 4: hip hop, not this year, but that whole book. We
• 45:46
  Speaker 4: get the air add a page into that book. I'm like, man,
• 45:51
  Speaker 4: you can't go wrong. And then first thing, when you
• 45:53
  Speaker 4: heard we got in there and he start hitting with
• 45:55
  Speaker 4: the you hear his voice off.
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: The top, you're like, put you back in at that
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: moment you like ah, And.
• 46:02
  Speaker 4: And then you take that and to be honest, music
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: is good, very good like and that's the that's the
• 46:09
  Speaker 4: you take that on top of the music being good.
• 46:12
  Speaker 4: And like I said, I think it's just setting the
• 46:15
  Speaker 4: tone of that next chapter, not just for the artists.
• 46:18
  Speaker 4: Whatever that is for Clue, whatever that is for me,
• 46:21
  Speaker 4: whatever that is for Puma, whatever that is for for like,
• 46:23
  Speaker 4: whatever that whoever is involved. I think this is bringing
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: the best out of all of us, right, And I
• 46:28
  Speaker 4: think that's when you make something great. When you get
• 46:30
  Speaker 4: set back and we take everybody to Boston. We just
• 46:34
  Speaker 4: take them to Puma and let them. But then the
• 46:36
  Speaker 4: people who's doing b roll from Puma come back and
• 46:39
  Speaker 4: show me something that they shot behind the scenes. It's
• 46:41
  Speaker 4: like you see, when you bring that energy in the room,
• 46:44
  Speaker 4: it just brings the best out of everybody. And I
• 46:47
  Speaker 4: think Clue just helped to bring the best out of them.
• 46:50
  Speaker 4: And I think for Clue, for me, we talked about it.
• 46:53
  Speaker 4: I think Clue has so much to offer to the world,
• 46:57
  Speaker 4: like I'm ready to set back and champion and root
• 47:01
  Speaker 4: for him on just being able to give that knowledge
• 47:05
  Speaker 4: and show the world of what he done in this
• 47:10
  Speaker 4: fifty years of hip hop, what his you know, contributions
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: have been. Like the world needs that.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: I told him yesterday, he got to use this tape
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: to step back into his legacy.
• 47:20
  Speaker 4: The world needs that, you know what I mean. And
• 47:22
  Speaker 4: it's hard because you know when you in your comfort
• 47:24
  Speaker 4: zone and you don't want to, but I just think
• 47:27
  Speaker 4: this is that time where was though. The world needs that.
• 47:30
  Speaker 4: Like it's so much going on and so much good,
• 47:33
  Speaker 4: bad and ugly going on, Like we always can take that. Clue.
• 47:36
  Speaker 4: Clue is history, man, Absolutely Clue. Clue Clue. You know,
• 47:40
  Speaker 4: Clue is one of the ones. When you talk about mixtape.
• 47:43
  Speaker 4: You got to put him his name at the top
• 47:44
  Speaker 4: of the list about what mixtape became.
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: It's needed and how can people get this mixtape?
• 47:54
  Speaker 4: So right now, the way you get it, we dropped
• 47:57
  Speaker 4: a single, got the single while we got some content
• 48:00
  Speaker 4: out right now, it's only on the sneaker. What it's
• 48:06
  Speaker 4: only right now? The cold.
• 48:22
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so yeah, so when you get the sneaker, we
• 48:37
  Speaker 5: got a chip and the sneaker, So that means we
• 48:41
  Speaker 5: can always change out content AD content.
• 48:46
  Speaker 4: So you go and you you you download the content
• 48:50
  Speaker 4: and the music on the sneaker. So right now is
• 48:53
  Speaker 4: just to keep that energy. We're going to all DSPs,
• 48:55
  Speaker 4: but it's just right now, we're just having fun because,
• 48:57
  Speaker 4: like I said, I think for me, I didn't want
• 49:01
  Speaker 4: to get into the program thing because once you start
• 49:03
  Speaker 4: the program thing, we take away from why we did it.
• 49:06
  Speaker 4: We take away the human side of the artists, like
• 49:08
  Speaker 4: you got to fit into this box and what's going on.
• 49:10
  Speaker 4: And I want people to see this process like we
• 49:14
  Speaker 4: like we got all the content of us making this,
• 49:17
  Speaker 4: like in the studio making it. You seeing it in
• 49:20
  Speaker 4: real time and you're seeing this coaraateerie come together of
• 49:23
  Speaker 4: just young talent, like in the world where they say
• 49:25
  Speaker 4: we can't get along, come together from everywhere from Chicago, Brooklyn,
• 49:31
  Speaker 4: you know, New Orleans is comped in. It's like all
• 49:34
  Speaker 4: this synergy go on. So you know, from from now
• 49:38
  Speaker 4: you get it all that's dope off the phone.
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: That's crazy. So when the niagas come out, then.
• 49:44
  Speaker 4: Sniggers came out on the fourteen now fourteen fourteen Puma
• 49:49
  Speaker 4: dot Com or footlocker dot com. You know, it's a footlocker.
• 49:52
  Speaker 4: This style is a foot Locker exclusive. But I felt like,
• 49:55
  Speaker 4: at this moment, that's a beautiful thing because we're gonna
• 49:58
  Speaker 4: utilize that platform till I fifty years and all that
• 50:04
  Speaker 4: and make it make sense. So this is the original.
• 50:07
  Speaker 4: So this is the cassette tape. So it's the evolution
• 50:10
  Speaker 4: of music. So you go from go from go from
• 50:18
  Speaker 4: the cassette tape to the CD player Sony Walkman MP three,
• 50:39
  Speaker 4: So it's just the evolution of music. You know what
• 50:41
  Speaker 4: I'm saying, Just paying homage to the evolution of music
• 50:44
  Speaker 4: and just showing my respect to what helped me be
• 50:47
  Speaker 4: who I am. Hip hop culture helped me become Emory Jones,
• 50:51
  Speaker 4: Vegas Jones, whatever you want to call it. It's a
• 50:54
  Speaker 4: big part of who I am, why I'm here, and
• 50:57
  Speaker 4: why I do what I do. So it's just a
• 51:00
  Speaker 4: h homage back to them, and I go into everybody.
• 51:02
  Speaker 4: My favorite part of the sneakers look at shoe string tips?
• 51:10
  Speaker 4: What what is it?
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: Oh my god?
• 51:15
  Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying, It's just it's just the moments, right,
• 51:18
  Speaker 4: just just to be able to play the moments and
• 51:20
  Speaker 4: think about this from remember the old t V K yep.
• 51:23
  Speaker 4: So it's like just paying just paying homage man to
• 51:26
  Speaker 4: why we're here, you feel.
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: I'm saying, what sides of that size?
• 51:30
  Speaker 4: I got? I got, I got, I got you all
• 51:33
  Speaker 4: sides here, A few of them, A few of them
• 51:35
  Speaker 4: they get to the office today. But it's good because
• 51:38
  Speaker 4: I get to get the team size and we can
• 51:39
  Speaker 4: come back and make sure.
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: That's why you ask my size?
• 51:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah I had to ask.
• 51:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeahray me at the blue like, Yo, what's your
• 51:47
  Speaker 3: shoe side?
• 51:48
  Speaker 4: I'm like, what, Yeah, that was me.
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: That was me said you flirt with me, and.
• 51:54
  Speaker 4: That was me checking in.
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: I appreciate you, bro. I got a few more questions.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: You know, it's emery. Here is fifty years of hip hop.
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: You don't get talking every too often. The other the
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: other day you said it was hard for you to
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: even stay in the museum.
• 52:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah. It's heavy. H It's heavy in a great way.
• 52:09
  Speaker 4: And I'm you know, all my friends know me. I'm emotional.
• 52:12
  Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying. I've been through a lot
• 52:15
  Speaker 4: and I'm not I'm not afraid to be emotional. I'm
• 52:18
  Speaker 4: not afraid, you know what I mean. That's just joy.
• 52:20
  Speaker 4: It's like you know, and it's heavy. It's heavy when
• 52:25
  Speaker 4: you when you set back and you know, see what
• 52:28
  Speaker 4: you know you've been a part of, like you've actually
• 52:32
  Speaker 4: been a part of you actually have added something value
• 52:36
  Speaker 4: to what you're seeing, right, and just to you know,
• 52:39
  Speaker 4: look at my big brother and just you know, the
• 52:42
  Speaker 4: watch is accomplishments and still look at him as you know,
• 52:47
  Speaker 4: not jay Z, not you know, whole not you know
• 52:52
  Speaker 4: all that, but see Sean Carter the human right and
• 52:56
  Speaker 4: such good human being. He is right. So to watch
• 52:59
  Speaker 4: all letting take that in is like and to be
• 53:02
  Speaker 4: in Brooklyn, like to be able to bring that back
• 53:04
  Speaker 4: and give Brooklyn that you know what I'm saying, not
• 53:07
  Speaker 4: just Brooklyn, New York, but then you know, being in
• 53:09
  Speaker 4: Brooklyn to give that at that moment, it's a lot. Yeah,
• 53:13
  Speaker 4: it's a lot. It's a lot, a lot. It's beautiful
• 53:16
  Speaker 4: as touching, but it's heavy to die just because like
• 53:20
  Speaker 4: you said, you got to pinch yourself every day like
• 53:22
  Speaker 4: it's just really real.
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: Was you also emotional because a lot of that you
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: might have missed?
• 53:27
  Speaker 4: No, no, nah, I didn't miss it because it helped
• 53:34
  Speaker 4: me get through to be able to be mentally strong
• 53:38
  Speaker 4: and prepared for my opportunities. It was in front of me,
• 53:42
  Speaker 4: so I didn't I didn't let that time going by
• 53:45
  Speaker 4: and missing that be a downer was an upper. So
• 53:49
  Speaker 4: I really didn't miss it because if they win and unwinning,
• 53:53
  Speaker 4: that's how I looked at it. I'm like, I can,
• 53:55
  Speaker 4: I can get up and go to sleep and deal
• 53:57
  Speaker 4: with that madness I deal with and be like nah,
• 54:00
  Speaker 4: like and I know them. They I know them, I
• 54:04
  Speaker 4: know how good they are. I know who they are,
• 54:07
  Speaker 4: and they winning. So it's like for me to witness that.
• 54:10
  Speaker 4: It never gave me that part, absolutely never. It never
• 54:14
  Speaker 4: it was like I'm saluting, I'm, I'm I'm that think
• 54:17
  Speaker 4: about it. I went through through that phone. I got
• 54:19
  Speaker 4: some of my closest friends from the system and the streets,
• 54:22
  Speaker 4: from Queens. You gotta figure out in Fort Dick's doing.
• 54:25
  Speaker 4: You know, the rap battles in the bid, But it
• 54:29
  Speaker 4: was never a thing amongst us. We never, you know,
• 54:32
  Speaker 4: we had fun about it. It's like you can come
• 54:34
  Speaker 4: in and brag about it and be like, yo, I
• 54:35
  Speaker 4: got one up on you and you, but it was never.
• 54:38
  Speaker 4: I never looked at it, no no difference. I never
• 54:42
  Speaker 4: looked at it, you know, from a from a thing,
• 54:44
  Speaker 4: because I looked at it as yo, we have an
• 54:46
  Speaker 4: opportunity to win, not just them. The door gonna open
• 54:50
  Speaker 4: up for everybody to win, even if you ain't got
• 54:52
  Speaker 4: to deal with music. It was just opening up the
• 54:54
  Speaker 4: door right for us to win. So for me, we
• 54:57
  Speaker 4: can always grow to get out of that small faking
• 55:01
  Speaker 4: become bigger. I always looked at the bigger picture, like
• 55:04
  Speaker 4: we got a chance to win. Man, this is this
• 55:06
  Speaker 4: is something that you know, you watch what the what
• 55:08
  Speaker 4: the what the ogs did to open up the door
• 55:11
  Speaker 4: for when the nineties came in, and you got to
• 55:13
  Speaker 4: be honest, the nineties ran with it in a way.
• 55:15
  Speaker 4: It was it open up the door for us to
• 55:18
  Speaker 4: be respected in a different way to now. And then
• 55:21
  Speaker 4: you like you say, now it's like everybody like, but
• 55:23
  Speaker 4: I don't like what's going on. There's always been some good,
• 55:28
  Speaker 4: bad and ugly ones they won. It's always been that,
• 55:32
  Speaker 4: no you know, difference. It might be a little more,
• 55:35
  Speaker 4: you know, advanced and broadcasting more, but it's it's no difference,
• 55:39
  Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying. It's the world. It's like
• 55:41
  Speaker 4: we can't put it on music. It's you know, the
• 55:43
  Speaker 4: world is the world. So you know, I was dealing
• 55:45
  Speaker 4: with sh different ways.
• 55:46
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: Do you believe it was divine order for you to
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: get locked up? And the reason I say that because
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: you know, I think Jay was in London right when
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: you who got arrested, but it was always with you,
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: so he was here. He might have been with you
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: doing that.
• 56:00
  Speaker 4: I mean, think about it. It was everything is ordained.
• 56:04
  Speaker 4: That's just the way it is, you know what I mean,
• 56:06
  Speaker 4: It's ordained at that moment. That was something that you know,
• 56:10
  Speaker 4: allow wanted me to go through, you know what I mean.
• 56:13
  Speaker 4: That was something that I had to deal with right
• 56:17
  Speaker 4: and and and I look at it as you know,
• 56:19
  Speaker 4: I wouldn't change it for nothing in the world, because
• 56:21
  Speaker 4: you know, if I changed that, that means you changing
• 56:24
  Speaker 4: some other things in life. It was it. I think
• 56:28
  Speaker 4: it was just ordained. It was just ordaining the way
• 56:30
  Speaker 4: it was gonna be right. And I think for me,
• 56:33
  Speaker 4: I went through that time. It's a lot of people
• 56:36
  Speaker 4: went through worse situations during my period of time gone
• 56:41
  Speaker 4: than I did during the time.
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: That's really you don't mean I was.
• 56:45
  Speaker 5: I was.
• 56:45
  Speaker 4: I was thankful to not lose you know, a parent,
• 56:48
  Speaker 4: my mom or nothing during that period. You know what
• 56:51
  Speaker 4: I'm saying, Like, I don't get me wrong, I was missing,
• 56:52
  Speaker 4: I'm hurting all that. But it's a lot of things
• 56:54
  Speaker 4: that happened to people every single day that was in
• 56:57
  Speaker 4: the world. It changed their life forever, absolutely right. It
• 57:03
  Speaker 4: ain't still you know what I mean? So for me,
• 57:04
  Speaker 4: I didn't, you know, I take it in that that
• 57:06
  Speaker 4: that grain and it was ordained.
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: I got two more questions, you and Jade, the whole rognition,
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: y'all constantly pulled back into the community. What's the secret
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: to mastering elevating out the hood without leaving it behind.
• 57:20
  Speaker 4: I think people do it in different ways. Sometimes, you know,
• 57:22
  Speaker 4: it's money, Sometimes it's presence. Sometimes it's just you know, education,
• 57:28
  Speaker 4: right because if you know, we just had the twenty
• 57:31
  Speaker 4: year you know Galla, right for that's start Carter, and
• 57:34
  Speaker 4: they hear the stories of people getting up down and
• 57:36
  Speaker 4: it's like, you know, I didn't get into college and
• 57:39
  Speaker 4: you know, blah blah blah, and I kept going. But
• 57:41
  Speaker 4: now I get my PhD. And it's like, you know,
• 57:43
  Speaker 4: someone that looked like you. So it's different ways. I
• 57:46
  Speaker 4: think for me, I think the human side of you
• 57:52
  Speaker 4: see all the success. Even at my level, people see
• 57:54
  Speaker 4: the success and it's like you don't even think that's attainable.
• 57:57
  Speaker 4: But when you when you get a chance for me
• 58:00
  Speaker 4: to really be hands on and understand what it is
• 58:03
  Speaker 4: and you can touch it. I think that's the biggest
• 58:06
  Speaker 4: give back for me, like to continue to do that
• 58:08
  Speaker 4: in different ways, and I think as collectively we all
• 58:11
  Speaker 4: find ways to continue to just you know, understand the
• 58:15
  Speaker 4: human side of it and being connected because guess what,
• 58:18
  Speaker 4: you can't. You can't go and be in the hood
• 58:20
  Speaker 4: like you want to no more. Just that's that's that's
• 58:24
  Speaker 4: not even right with or without it. It's not it's
• 58:27
  Speaker 4: just you know, it's just not happening, you know what
• 58:30
  Speaker 4: I mean. But for me, I take time out to
• 58:32
  Speaker 4: make sure that I you know, I'm touchable and and
• 58:36
  Speaker 4: and the human side of you know, getting to where
• 58:38
  Speaker 4: I got to is like it starts with you first.
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 58:42
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: My last question, what's your favorite Emery Jones whole reference
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: in a rap record?
• 58:50
  Speaker 4: Can I live without saying the name? You know what
• 58:53
  Speaker 4: I mean? Either Las Vegas, me be at the crap table,
• 58:56
  Speaker 4: the one that starts a g up, you know, Frost
• 58:59
  Speaker 4: Willie Gambling, that's a real that's a real time before
• 59:03
  Speaker 4: it was a Rockefeller Records. You know what I'm saying,
• 59:06
  Speaker 4: Like that's a real moment. Like I acted like I
• 59:09
  Speaker 4: own it Vegas at that moment, and they gave me
• 59:11
  Speaker 4: that name Vegas Jones from that from that record, Like
• 59:15
  Speaker 4: we was in Vegas without no deal, running around doing
• 59:18
  Speaker 4: Mike Tyson Fight. But we knew that the next chapter
• 59:23
  Speaker 4: was that. So you know that to me is my
• 59:27
  Speaker 4: all time favorite of all times.
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: That's why you rock the Reasonable Doubt and everything.
• 59:31
  Speaker 4: Absolutely absolutely because think about it, this Reasonable Doubt was
• 59:36
  Speaker 4: just not Jay's album. It was all of our albums. Right,
• 59:40
  Speaker 4: It's life rights. It's that you know what I mean.
• 59:45
  Speaker 4: It means so much more than you know just the
• 59:50
  Speaker 4: music just is means so much more. It's just even
• 59:53
  Speaker 4: for us to be able to take that next step
• 59:56
  Speaker 4: that means you grew up some in life. Hmm, you
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 4: know what I mean? Like you said that, go through
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 4: that moment of saying am I gonna do this or
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 4: I'm not gonna do that? Right to take that step
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 4: and get that done and that process that means you
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 4: etched on the board that you grew up some. You
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 4: took a step forward. Without that step forward, we might
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 4: not be in this position right now. We needed that, Like,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 4: that's why it's so important. That's step right there gave
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 4: us rumed, you know, not saying we got it right
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 4: and not saying we perfect and not saying we did
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 4: some things that was you know good. But that first
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 4: step helped us be in this position today.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: And he probably didn't mention the name on purpose. Back then,
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: you couldn't go fast forward. Grammys you on one side,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: oge one on the other side, he was down ten
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: for this. We just got his ten back that went back,
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: Like what the interest is them? Light up the old three?
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: Like how did that feel?
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 4: That's like, you know, I think trick this on that.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 4: Me and Win still talking about that. We show up
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 4: and you know, we see everything going on and we
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 4: see this big table, me and Wan and you know
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 4: why is you know he never on him like Jay
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 4: like the table man. I'm like, yo, we ain't get
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 4: no contracts for this. We're joking, right, So me and
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 4: Lil Wayne we laughing and we laughing about it, and
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 4: then Lil Wayne said something that was the butt of
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 4: the joke the rest of the night. He said, yo,
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 4: he got y'all doing pro bono work. That was our
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 4: joke the whole night. But it was it's just like,
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 4: at that moment, you don't know, and that's your brother,
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 4: you know, because him it means so much just to
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 4: him first, right, and to be able to help commendate
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 4: that and that moment and all that is like you
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 4: take it so real. It's like, come on, man, like
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 4: you know, to watch my guy at that moment and
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 4: you know it's Grammy's la, you know, and the thing
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 4: is like whoa, like, you know what, go back there.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 4: It's ordained we're supposed to have been there. That's regardless
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 4: what right we're supposed to have been there. Right, it's
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 4: a moment in life, and it's a moment chapter. It's
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 4: that chapter we're supposed to be there. And it goes
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 4: back to say, without reasonable doubt that chapter might not
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 4: never happen.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: That's right, y'all. Are you'll legends? Is it ain't even
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: a strong enough word, man, straight for what y'all y'all
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: have brought to the culture. Man, Well, there you have it.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 3: Man, We appreciate you joining us. Make sure you picked
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 3: up the pumas the mixtape and this is I think
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 3: this might have been the longest interview we've done this ship.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: Well, it was the most fulfilling.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 2: That's absolutely was for me.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: Absolutely enjoyed this conversation.
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 2: Emrie Jones. We thank you for joining us. Appreciate you
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: and thank you for the kicks too.
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 4: Amazing, Absolutely my pleasure too.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: Monogram out there too, and you listen to the mixtape
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: to tell you go get that monogram.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 4: That's right, you know, you know it's the same things.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 4: Just take your time, that's right, you rush, take the time.
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 4: Ain't take a time man. It's like, hey, than take
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 4: my time now, this thing for real.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: Thank you for everything that y'all do for the coaching man,
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: and you know even for me just being the sauce
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: of just being able to pick up the phone sometime
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: and get some game. You know, Memory is the person
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: that's always sharing their resources, like the Black Effect logo
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: is because I reached out to Memory because I wanted
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: to create something like paper planes. He was like, he
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: plugged me right into who who does what? You know,
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: even with the hats, Michelan nets all of that.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 4: So I mean, that's that's that's what we do, right,
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 4: that's what we're supposed to do.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 2: Emery Jones, it's the Breakfast Club. Good morning,