Latest / Earn Your Leisure / EYL #258 Vic Mensa on the Laws of Branding, the Future of Africa, and Building a Cannabis Empire

Transcript

EYL #258 Vic Mensa on the Laws of Branding, the Future of Africa, and Building a Cannabis Empire · Earn Your Leisure

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Speaker 1: Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump, America's laws,
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0:57
Speaker 2: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security.
1:00
Speaker 3: There's a book called the twenty two Immutable Laws of Branding,
1:03
Speaker 3: and so I started to learn things about the law
1:06
Speaker 3: of color. You know, you want to own a color
1:08
Speaker 3: in the mind of the consumer, and so as I
1:10
Speaker 3: start to think about ninety three boys, I'm like, uh, gas,
1:15
Speaker 3: you also want to own a word in the mind
1:17
Speaker 3: of the consumer, you know what I'm saying, Like or
1:21
Speaker 3: phrase like Jimmy John's is freaky fast or something.
1:24
Speaker 4: Just do it for Nike, Just do it.
1:26
Speaker 5: It's Nike.
1:28
Speaker 4: All right, guys, welcome back. Yeah, we're back home, man,
1:31
Speaker 4: been running around the world. A special special episode. We
1:36
Speaker 4: got big.
1:36
Speaker 6: Mensa coming from the South South so artist, fashion iconn.
1:44
Speaker 4: We're gonna throw that in there, entrepreneur, Chicago in and
1:51
Speaker 4: all around. I think a voice of his generation.
1:54
Speaker 5: Yeah.
1:55
Speaker 4: I think he's one of these people that have become
1:56
Speaker 4: a voice of his generation. Thought leader. Yeah. So it's
2:00
Speaker 4: going to be an interesting conversation for a variety of
2:03
Speaker 4: different reasons and different topics. But first and foremost, thank
2:05
Speaker 4: you for joining us.
2:06
Speaker 3: Appreciate I appreciate y'all for having me in such a
2:08
Speaker 3: major way. Man, Like, I'm a big fan of what
2:11
Speaker 3: y'all do and just the information that you guys pushed forward.
2:16
Speaker 3: I feel like, obviously we're in the time when information
2:20
Speaker 3: is available, but it's not always prioritized. It's so much
2:24
Speaker 3: propaganda and y'all building a platform based on informing like
2:28
Speaker 3: I've literally learned things that I'm implementing into my business
2:33
Speaker 3: through watching you guys.
2:35
Speaker 5: You're confredible, incredible.
2:38
Speaker 4: Man, Thank you, thank you for that. So I want
2:40
Speaker 4: to jump right into it. I want to talk about
2:43
Speaker 4: the entrepreneur. Let's talk about that first. So you're heavily
2:46
Speaker 4: involved in the cannabis space. Word, right, you just you
2:49
Speaker 4: just dropped the new venture ninety three Boys. Yes, sir,
2:52
Speaker 4: So talk about this interesting because I heard you say
2:56
Speaker 4: that selling we was like the first it taught you,
3:01
Speaker 4: taught you some valuable lessons early, and now you're doing
3:04
Speaker 4: it on a whole different level. So talk about your
3:07
Speaker 4: evolution in the marijuana space and where you are now
3:09
Speaker 4: with the ninety three Boys.
3:10
Speaker 5: Yeah, I got you.
3:11
Speaker 3: So we launched ninety three Boys about a year ago today,
3:15
Speaker 3: pretty much for twenty of congrats as the first black
3:21
Speaker 3: owned cannabis to be legally sold in Illinois dispensaries.
3:26
Speaker 5: So fast forward about a year.
3:28
Speaker 3: We have sold to in our inn pretty much all
3:33
Speaker 3: of the one hundred and five hundred and ten hundred
3:34
Speaker 3: and fifteen dispensaries in the state of Illinois. And you know,
3:40
Speaker 3: it's grown exponentially like immediately. And it is a full
3:46
Speaker 3: circle moment for me though, because I did start hustling.
3:50
Speaker 5: Very early, maybe eleven twelve.
3:52
Speaker 3: Years old, and before I was rapping, I was selling
3:55
Speaker 3: week That was what taught me punctuality, you know what
3:59
Speaker 3: I mean for real, because it was like it was
4:04
Speaker 3: the first thing in my life where I was directly
4:06
Speaker 3: incentivized to work because I saw immediate return.
4:11
Speaker 4: And this on the South Side Chicago.
4:13
Speaker 3: So it's like if I wake up at six am
4:15
Speaker 3: and I bag up all my grams and my aids
4:19
Speaker 3: before I go to school, then I come home with
4:21
Speaker 3: it not you know, or if I stay home, or
4:24
Speaker 3: if I stay awake until midnight one am to make
4:28
Speaker 3: this serve like recklessly out the window of my mom's
4:32
Speaker 3: house into the alley, you.
4:33
Speaker 5: Know, I get paid.
4:35
Speaker 3: And it really made the equation of hard work equals
4:41
Speaker 3: success makes sense to me, you know what I'm saying,
4:43
Speaker 3: Because I was always in the fashion and I was
4:48
Speaker 3: looking for ways to get fly primarily and also to
4:52
Speaker 3: record money for studio time, and selling weed was the
4:58
Speaker 3: gateway into that for me. That funded all of my
5:00
Speaker 3: earliest music projects and in a lot of ways taught
5:06
Speaker 3: me the concept of developing clientele because I was hustling
5:12
Speaker 3: with superior product packaging, you know, basically branding. And then
5:20
Speaker 3: about a year later I had a mixtape, So now
5:24
Speaker 3: I have concert tickets.
5:25
Speaker 4: How were you a mixtape?
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Speaker 5: Sixteen?
5:27
Speaker 4: So let's go back a little bit. You said you
5:29
Speaker 4: started hustling.
5:30
Speaker 6: You was eleven, trying, trying, trying keywords, let's try.
5:35
Speaker 5: You know, it was like I was shady.
5:37
Speaker 3: You know, I'm not gonna lie, Like I would take
5:39
Speaker 3: the guts out of a blunt and put them in
5:41
Speaker 3: the bag and try to sell them to rich kids
5:43
Speaker 3: or like loos on me this dirt, like trying to
5:47
Speaker 3: intimidate them into you know, he is at the school
5:50
Speaker 3: trying to intimidate them. But then I also had like Reggie,
5:53
Speaker 3: you know, and I was trying to sell that to
5:55
Speaker 3: high schoolers and they're like, damn sure, you ain't got
5:57
Speaker 3: no mids.
5:58
Speaker 5: I'm like Nigga taking a straight to the moon. You know.
6:01
Speaker 4: So who even put you in the mind frame of
6:04
Speaker 4: because it's like you have to have some kind of
6:07
Speaker 4: person that you're looking up to or somebody that's mentoring you,
6:09
Speaker 4: Like who, right, did you?
6:10
Speaker 3: Because that's I never really thought about that. You know
6:12
Speaker 3: I was a graffiti writer. I grew up writing graffiti.
6:15
Speaker 3: As we were discussing a second ago, like, I'm a
6:17
Speaker 3: real student of hip hop. So hip hop for me
6:19
Speaker 3: didn't start with like one O six in park for real.
6:24
Speaker 3: I mean it did, But hip hop for me didn't
6:26
Speaker 3: start with commercialism, you know.
6:28
Speaker 5: It started with like.
6:29
Speaker 3: Like purist hip hop shit like breakdancing and graffiti was
6:33
Speaker 3: what I did before rapping.
6:35
Speaker 5: And so I was a graffiti writer. And my big
6:38
Speaker 5: homies were.
6:39
Speaker 3: Closer to like my age now when I was a
6:42
Speaker 3: little kid, and they was graph writers who sold weed,
6:47
Speaker 3: you know. So I think probably being around those guys
6:50
Speaker 3: that were like selling weed at that time made me.
6:53
Speaker 3: I mean, the first time I went in my guy's
6:55
Speaker 3: house and I seen he had like I don't know,
6:57
Speaker 3: some ouncers on the table.
6:58
Speaker 5: It looked like one hundred pounds. I went home like
7:06
Speaker 5: what did I just see? I felt like the saint.
7:10
Speaker 5: I was like, what did I just see?
7:12
Speaker 4: You know?
7:12
Speaker 3: So I started trying my hand at it, man, but
7:15
Speaker 3: you know, I wasn't very successful early on. But when
7:17
Speaker 3: I got into high school, though, I started to make
7:20
Speaker 3: it make sense, you know, And I was like looking
7:23
Speaker 3: for quality strains and just like a good plug and
7:30
Speaker 3: you know, attempting to be consistent with it, and it
7:34
Speaker 3: started to bear fruit.
7:36
Speaker 5: So this is interesting because you're a hip hop purist.
7:41
Speaker 6: Your environment that you're growing up in the South Side Chicago,
7:43
Speaker 6: the sound that's coming from it is not the sound
7:46
Speaker 6: that you study. So when you're trying to create your
7:48
Speaker 6: own sound in music, because I mean, the entrepreneurial journey
7:52
Speaker 6: has two gaps, right, it starts out as sounder leading
7:54
Speaker 6: we're back to some week, But in between it, the
7:56
Speaker 6: music was what people.
7:57
Speaker 5: Were knowing you for. How did you try to figure
7:59
Speaker 5: out the sound that you were on a delivered to
8:01
Speaker 5: the world.
8:02
Speaker 3: Well, the sound that was coming from the South Side
8:03
Speaker 3: of Chicago at the time when I was becoming an
8:07
Speaker 3: artist was actually very similar to the sound that I've
8:11
Speaker 3: developed personally in a way because it was Lupe Fiasco
8:15
Speaker 3: to Kick, Push Right.
8:16
Speaker 5: Danye and Common, you know what I mean. Like for me,
8:21
Speaker 5: that was before the drill. That was the social comes.
8:24
Speaker 3: Drill comes into play around the time that I come
8:28
Speaker 3: in to play, you know on the world stage. Okay,
8:31
Speaker 3: myself and Chance and you know, our friends and contemporaries,
8:35
Speaker 3: we all emerged at the same moment, like I had
8:38
Speaker 3: a bar it I said the other day, and something
8:40
Speaker 3: that was like somebody I emerged at the same time,
8:45
Speaker 3: and moment is drilled just to think. But I never
8:50
Speaker 3: killed no one. I just got a human appeal, that
8:52
Speaker 3: musical skill and truth to reveal something like that. But
8:54
Speaker 3: it was like it was the same moment. It's like
8:56
Speaker 3: twenty thirteen when you know, I started touring America and
9:02
Speaker 3: Europe and Australia and you know, we were at south
9:06
Speaker 3: By Southwest and Chief Keef has just come out. You know,
9:09
Speaker 3: We're standing on vans and turning up to it.
9:12
Speaker 5: It was all the same time.
9:13
Speaker 3: But growing up, like in high school, I was like
9:19
Speaker 3: deeply entranced by like Loop A Fiasco, you know what
9:22
Speaker 3: I'm saying. Of course, Kanye West and Common was actually
9:26
Speaker 3: my favorite MC.
9:27
Speaker 5: So it was like, this is food and liquor, this
9:30
Speaker 5: is food and liquor, this is and it's cool.
9:32
Speaker 6: The Food and Liquors classic. But it's prey up the
9:35
Speaker 6: past couple of flights. All I've been listening to is
9:37
Speaker 6: be I think it's just one of the most.
9:38
Speaker 3: You know, I'm saying an album, So that's the music,
9:43
Speaker 3: that's the soundtrack to my bus rides and when I'm
9:47
Speaker 3: on the train going to buy at work or whatever,
9:49
Speaker 3: like I'm listening to Common and I'm hearing him, you know,
9:56
Speaker 3: dissect complex topics of his story and faith and love
10:03
Speaker 3: and struggle and everything in between. And that's what informed
10:07
Speaker 3: me as as a writer, as a poet, as a
10:10
Speaker 3: rapper was that music. Of course, I loved Twister and
10:16
Speaker 3: you know, more like street Chicago music as well, but
10:20
Speaker 3: the biggest music in Chicago at that time was Kanye.
10:22
Speaker 4: Was yes, you know, and they was huge too. Yes, Yeah,
10:25
Speaker 4: definitely had a buzz for sure, you know what I mean,
10:27
Speaker 4: first came out. I was in college, definitely, definitely. So
10:30
Speaker 4: that was the music that really spoke to me. So
10:33
Speaker 4: you guys are the first black owned cannabis company in Chicago?
10:36
Speaker 5: Is that right to sell flower?
10:38
Speaker 3: I actually got into a little bit of a tizzy
10:41
Speaker 3: with some guys that they had got it.
10:43
Speaker 5: They was like, and they've been selling.
10:45
Speaker 3: Like like bongs and like you know, some what do
10:49
Speaker 3: you call those accessories?
10:51
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying.
10:51
Speaker 3: But as far as like selling actual cannabis, Flower and
10:56
Speaker 3: Illino dispensers, ye, at ninety three boys the first one
11:00
Speaker 3: to get on the shelves.
11:01
Speaker 4: So all right, how are you able to do that?
11:04
Speaker 4: Like what's the process? Because we're talking about like as
11:06
Speaker 4: far as the inequity as far as for black entrepreneurs
11:09
Speaker 4: in the marijuana space, I think it's less than two percent.
11:12
Speaker 5: Crazy.
11:13
Speaker 4: So being at you guys with the first how'd you
11:16
Speaker 4: do that? And what were the hurdles? Like what were
11:18
Speaker 4: the licenses and all that stuff that you have to do?
11:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, honestly, there's so many hurdles and it's a travesty
11:25
Speaker 3: that there are so few black owned brands in the state.
11:30
Speaker 3: I think to this day there's still maybe like three
11:33
Speaker 3: or four on the shows by now in Illinois, and nationally,
11:37
Speaker 3: like you said, it's below four percent, maybe even two
11:41
Speaker 3: percent lower than that in Chicago.
11:43
Speaker 5: In Illinois for sure.
11:45
Speaker 3: And it's crazy because this is something that's been used
11:48
Speaker 3: to destroy decimate our communities. You know, it's been criminalized
11:54
Speaker 3: and weaponized against us, and then as they decide that
11:59
Speaker 3: it can be a money maker, we've been kept that
12:03
Speaker 3: day and deny to see the table. So when the
12:07
Speaker 3: laws began to change in Illinois, immediately I just put
12:12
Speaker 3: my sights on it. You know, I've been back in
12:15
Speaker 3: the black market and or the traditional market as we
12:18
Speaker 3: call it. You know, that was very That was a
12:22
Speaker 3: very nice way to put it. That's what they say.
12:24
Speaker 3: I said the other day I learned that. I was like,
12:26
Speaker 3: I like that because it's true. Though, yes, you know,
12:28
Speaker 3: there's no need to like more more luminize, you know
12:31
Speaker 3: what I'm saying, Like the.
12:32
Speaker 5: Traditional yeah, the black market or marijuana sol there anyway.
12:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, is way more lucrative. It's just like so much
12:40
Speaker 3: that comes along with that. It's like, I don't be
12:42
Speaker 3: trying to deal with that shit. But I had been
12:45
Speaker 3: back in that space, and so as the law started
12:48
Speaker 3: to change, I really just got vocal.
12:50
Speaker 5: Man, I want to tell the truth, you know what
12:51
Speaker 5: I mean.
12:52
Speaker 3: I was like just getting on newspapers and shit, being like, yeah,
12:57
Speaker 3: we need to be in here.
12:59
Speaker 5: You know.
13:00
Speaker 3: Obviously I'm advocating for myself, but what I am as
13:05
Speaker 3: a man, as an advocate for us as well in
13:08
Speaker 3: anything that I'm doing. And so my speech and my
13:13
Speaker 3: focus was really on the need for substantial inclusion of
13:19
Speaker 3: our community as this plant is legalized. And I also
13:25
Speaker 3: started applying for all the licenses, you know, from dispensary
13:28
Speaker 3: to cultivation my boy who I've been building this shit with.
13:33
Speaker 3: He is growing down in Michigan, and so we were
13:38
Speaker 3: building our brand already. We were I was being vocal
13:42
Speaker 3: and loud on newspapers about getting in legally and applying
13:47
Speaker 3: for licenses, and I'm just looking for whatever way this
13:50
Speaker 3: is going to work, is the way I'm going to
13:52
Speaker 3: go First people that always told me branding was really
13:56
Speaker 3: where you want to be at mentors of mind of
14:00
Speaker 3: just friends that are in the cannabis space and other
14:03
Speaker 3: legal states. And ultimately the way that ninety three boys
14:10
Speaker 3: became the first to make it into the dispensaries. It
14:15
Speaker 3: still a licensing deal, you know what I mean. It
14:19
Speaker 3: wasn't easy because then everybody would have done it, you
14:23
Speaker 3: know what I mean. But that was how it unfolded,
14:27
Speaker 3: was like people taking note of what I was saying
14:31
Speaker 3: and what I was doing, and knowing my track record
14:33
Speaker 3: with investment into the community, and that anything I'm doing
14:38
Speaker 3: is going to be uplifting the people, you know what
14:43
Speaker 3: I mean that need to be impacted. And so I
14:46
Speaker 3: pulled a license and deal with one of the larger
14:49
Speaker 3: producers in the state that has the highest quality flower
14:53
Speaker 3: while at the same time making sure that I retained
14:57
Speaker 3: the vast majority of the lion's share of the equity
15:01
Speaker 3: and ownership of the actual brand. And now the brand
15:06
Speaker 3: is established and moving. Now you know, it's time for
15:08
Speaker 3: the vertical integration. But the most important thing to me
15:11
Speaker 3: was always to do the brand. And so I started
15:15
Speaker 3: studying branding. Even like, right now, I'm wearing these shades,
15:19
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, I feel kind of funny
15:22
Speaker 3: because y'all not wearing but I wanted to keep these
15:28
Speaker 3: on until I start to talk about this. Because when
15:31
Speaker 3: I started studying branding, there's a book called the twenty
15:34
Speaker 3: two Immutable Laws of Branding, And so I started to
15:37
Speaker 3: learn things about the law of color. You know, you
15:39
Speaker 3: want to own a color in the mind of the consumer.
15:42
Speaker 3: So what color is Coca Cola?
15:45
Speaker 5: Right?
15:45
Speaker 4: Right?
15:46
Speaker 5: You know what I mean? Starbucks? What colors? You know
15:49
Speaker 5: what I mean?
15:50
Speaker 3: And so as I start to think about ninety three boys,
15:53
Speaker 3: I'm like.
15:55
Speaker 5: Gas.
15:56
Speaker 3: You also want to own a word in the mind
15:58
Speaker 3: of the consumer, you know what I'm saying, Like or
16:01
Speaker 3: phrase like Jimmy Johns is freaky fast or something. Just
16:05
Speaker 3: do it, Just do it, as nikeies.
16:10
Speaker 5: Killed that, you know what I mean?
16:11
Speaker 3: Even like once I didn't necessarily know like Mercedes Benz
16:14
Speaker 3: is prestige, you know.
16:16
Speaker 5: So with ninety three.
16:17
Speaker 3: Boys, I was like, gas everything, gas push the color yellow.
16:21
Speaker 3: And one of the most pivotal laws of branding is
16:27
Speaker 3: to be the first, you know. So I was just racing,
16:31
Speaker 3: like to get ninety three Boys in there as the first,
16:36
Speaker 3: you know, brand of black ownership in the state, because
16:42
Speaker 3: it's such a powerful tool, marketing tool, honestly, you know
16:45
Speaker 3: what I mean, being the first. And another thing I
16:50
Speaker 3: learned through that was like publicity over advertisement, you know
16:56
Speaker 3: what I'm saying. So it's like I was thinking about
16:59
Speaker 3: Billboard Awards and all that type of shit, but instead
17:04
Speaker 3: I chose to like get ill with like pr and
17:07
Speaker 3: like campaigns online with other people posting talking about the
17:12
Speaker 3: ship they were doing, because it's so it resonates more,
17:16
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, when somebody else. Obviously, if
17:18
Speaker 3: somebody tells you Vic Minister's nice, You're gonna be like, damn,
17:20
Speaker 3: I should check it out. If I come to you
17:21
Speaker 3: and I tell you, yo, I'm that nice. Gee, how
17:24
Speaker 3: many niggas tell you that? I never really believe them?
17:27
Speaker 5: You know.
17:28
Speaker 6: How do you how did you manage that right, because
17:29
Speaker 6: you're trying to build a brand, but as an artist,
17:32
Speaker 6: you have a brand as itself, right, right, And there's
17:35
Speaker 6: certain things like that are going on in your career
17:37
Speaker 6: that there's ups and downs beside your career, but you
17:39
Speaker 6: still want people to believe in this new brand or
17:41
Speaker 6: this new venture.
17:42
Speaker 5: How did you manage to deal with that? Because that's
17:45
Speaker 5: that's that's not easy.
17:46
Speaker 3: No, that's facts, man, And I think ultimately ninety three
17:51
Speaker 3: boys being rooted in the ethos that I built it
17:55
Speaker 3: with has served it immensely as well. Like what we
18:00
Speaker 3: like to say is that a portion of every proceeds
18:02
Speaker 3: go back to the community. So we started off with
18:05
Speaker 3: creative solutions and programs in the city of Chicago, and
18:09
Speaker 3: that's what we continue to push. It's like I look
18:12
Speaker 3: at it as three seeds. It's like cultivation, culture, and
18:18
Speaker 3: community and the community pieces with heavy emphasis. So in
18:23
Speaker 3: launching it, I started with something called Books before Bars,
18:27
Speaker 3: where sending books into jails and prisons across the nation,
18:30
Speaker 3: not just illanois things that have been pivotal for me
18:33
Speaker 3: and friends of mine that are incarcerated because I figure
18:37
Speaker 3: if I'm working on something that working with something that
18:40
Speaker 3: has been used to steal freedom from so many. Then
18:42
Speaker 3: I got to be screaming freedom at the top of
18:44
Speaker 3: my lungs while I'm doing.
18:45
Speaker 5: It, and it can't be all about me, you know.
18:47
Speaker 3: So doing things like that and starting with this like
18:51
Speaker 3: give back community ethos, I think that that has shown
18:58
Speaker 3: people the value in a lot of ways and that
19:00
Speaker 3: you know, I'm for real and I'm gonna keep being
19:02
Speaker 3: me who I am. Also being in Chicago, you know,
19:06
Speaker 3: it's like music industry is treacherous, point blank, and being
19:13
Speaker 3: a black man is difficult, you know what I'm saying.
19:16
Speaker 3: And there have been so many pitfalls and as you said,
19:19
Speaker 3: ups and downs to my journey and my trajectory, but
19:24
Speaker 3: Chicago has always.
19:25
Speaker 5: Held me so dearly, you know what I mean.
19:27
Speaker 3: And like focusing on home where it's like you be
19:32
Speaker 3: in Chicago, you might just be in trenches and meet
19:34
Speaker 3: somebody who I've directly impacted and helped in the flesh,
19:38
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. So and they're very aware
19:41
Speaker 3: of those things, so it helps.
19:44
Speaker 5: I want to talk to you. Brought up two words
19:45
Speaker 5: and they're very important, and I want to bring it up.
19:48
Speaker 6: You set home and people treating you in a certain
19:52
Speaker 6: reverence when I was reading your story the impact that
19:55
Speaker 6: Ghana has had on you, because I had no idea
19:58
Speaker 6: until I started research that your dad's African, and so
20:02
Speaker 6: you've been going to Ghana as you a kid. Talk
20:05
Speaker 6: about the impact that it had on you as a kid,
20:08
Speaker 6: and then we'll get into how what you're doing kind
20:11
Speaker 6: of now to try to bridge Africa and American relationships
20:16
Speaker 6: from the diaspora among our community.
20:18
Speaker 3: I think as a child, going to Ghana for the
20:22
Speaker 3: first time gave me context, as it still does to
20:25
Speaker 3: this day. The privilege of having a direct communication with
20:30
Speaker 3: my ancestry, however, was probably lost on me as a kid.
20:34
Speaker 3: That's something that I've started to understand more recently. Your
20:37
Speaker 3: father's from Ghana, My father's from Ghana. My entire family
20:40
Speaker 3: on my father's side lives in Ghana. He's the only
20:42
Speaker 3: one to come to America. So that's always been something
20:46
Speaker 3: I was aware of, but more recently I started to realize,
20:51
Speaker 3: like I said, how privileged I am because most of
20:54
Speaker 3: the closest people to me in this life have had
20:57
Speaker 3: that awareness of their scesstry stolen from them. And I
21:01
Speaker 3: think that we as Black Americans obviously can attribute much
21:06
Speaker 3: of our struggle to our uprooting from our home, you know,
21:13
Speaker 3: and our lack of context about our history and deliberate
21:18
Speaker 3: mis education about our history. So I know mine, you
21:23
Speaker 3: know what I mean, I really I know ours, you
21:25
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying, And so that's given me just
21:29
Speaker 3: strength and confidence. So even as a kid when I
21:33
Speaker 3: first went to Ghana, I was a soccer player at
21:35
Speaker 3: the time. That's what I was really into. And I
21:39
Speaker 3: came back so nice, you know what I mean, Like
21:42
Speaker 3: I came back ill with it, you know, And I
21:44
Speaker 3: was like, I think I came back with a different swag,
21:47
Speaker 3: and just like it wasn't cool to be African yet.
21:50
Speaker 5: It was African booty scratch at time. Yeah it was
21:54
Speaker 5: a moment.
21:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it wasn't cool to be African yet, as
21:58
Speaker 3: is becoming and is kind of now. But it still
22:02
Speaker 3: gave me context because I felt like somewhat of a
22:06
Speaker 3: pariah in childhood because it's like, my pops is African,
22:11
Speaker 3: so I'm not really black enough. I don't really know
22:14
Speaker 3: all the cultural cues and all that shit. My mom's
22:17
Speaker 3: white from Upstate New York and that's a whole different
22:22
Speaker 3: fucking world. And I'm on the South side of Chicago.
22:25
Speaker 3: So that's in the house, but when I leave the house,
22:27
Speaker 3: don't nobody know that there's anything different, you know what
22:30
Speaker 3: I mean. So it just gave me perspective, and to
22:35
Speaker 3: this day, its just being in Ghuna and being gone
22:37
Speaker 3: in learning more, appreciating that privilege, recognizing that with privilege
22:43
Speaker 3: comes responsibility and also opportunity.
22:47
Speaker 5: Has just given me global perspective.
22:50
Speaker 3: So I don't view what I'm doing or what happens
22:53
Speaker 3: in America in a silo, you know, as if it's
22:57
Speaker 3: all that exists.
22:59
Speaker 4: So there was a few points, but I wanted to
23:02
Speaker 4: go back to the other point because it was very insightful.
23:05
Speaker 4: You said, marketing over advertisement.
23:09
Speaker 5: Yeah, pericity advertary.
23:11
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's something that's extremely important for anybody in business
23:13
Speaker 4: to understand because the thing it's like ten times more
23:15
Speaker 4: stickier if it comes organically as opposed to an AD,
23:21
Speaker 4: and it actually helps advertising as well, just to have
23:25
Speaker 4: more of a brand recognition. So now when you see
23:27
Speaker 4: an AD, now you're more likely to engage with that
23:32
Speaker 4: ad from that. So being that that's the case, like
23:37
Speaker 4: what exactly is your strategy? Like, come on different podcast shows?
23:40
Speaker 4: Is it social media? Is it print. Is it just
23:44
Speaker 4: everything all wrapped in one.
23:47
Speaker 3: It's definitely a multi layered strategy that I've been taken
23:50
Speaker 3: with ninety three Boys. I think to begin with, as
23:53
Speaker 3: I said, I wanted to make sure we were the first,
23:55
Speaker 3: so that means certain things I had to push to
23:58
Speaker 3: the side so that I got in there first. Tyson
24:03
Speaker 3: was two weeks later, you know what I mean, My
24:06
Speaker 3: claim as first black brand wouldn't have been true anymore.
24:10
Speaker 3: Mike Tyson Tyson two point zero. So we got into
24:14
Speaker 3: dispensaries right before Mike Tyson did in Illinois, being first,
24:19
Speaker 3: you know, really using these community initiatives obviously to uplift
24:26
Speaker 3: the people, but also to impress our brand identity, you know,
24:33
Speaker 3: on the mind of the Chicago consumer. My brand identity
24:38
Speaker 3: is that, so ultimately I was just transferring that into
24:43
Speaker 3: ninety three Boys. We did a campaign where we were
24:47
Speaker 3: giving away free gas. Gas prices was through the roof,
24:52
Speaker 3: and so we went to the gas station in the
24:54
Speaker 3: trenches and.
24:55
Speaker 5: Just like stood there asking people do you want gas?
24:58
Speaker 5: You know what I mean, and.
25:00
Speaker 3: People's tank up and sent that around to the different platforms,
25:05
Speaker 3: you know, different pages on Instagram, so they could talk
25:10
Speaker 3: about ninety three boys, as opposed to just me scream
25:16
Speaker 3: down your ear, like, listen to me, We're dope, Like
25:18
Speaker 3: I'm like, nah, Send it to a bunch of different people.
25:21
Speaker 5: Let them tell you that we're dope, like we said.
25:23
Speaker 3: You know, that's publicity over advertisement, because at first in
25:27
Speaker 3: the budget was billboards planned. But through study and I
25:32
Speaker 3: learned that statistically, billboards are actually more impactful for a
25:37
Speaker 3: largely established brand to just stay present in the mind
25:43
Speaker 3: of their consumers before a new venture, a new brand,
25:47
Speaker 3: you want other people telling your story for you. So
25:50
Speaker 3: definitely interviews and podcasts and genetics though, I mean, when
25:57
Speaker 3: you're talking about cannabis, it's like it's got to them
26:00
Speaker 3: down to weed. So that's a space in which we've
26:04
Speaker 3: just been doing a deep dive to really nail our
26:08
Speaker 3: genetic portfolio before even introducing new skills.
26:13
Speaker 5: Like I've learned a lot though in the past year.
26:15
Speaker 3: One thing I didn't know coming into it is that
26:19
Speaker 3: pre rolls are really the cream of the crop.
26:25
Speaker 5: In cannabis.
26:27
Speaker 3: Because super convenient, very convenient, and it's something that you
26:32
Speaker 3: don't buy from your weed man, like your weed man ain't.
26:34
Speaker 5: In a roll your weed for you a couple of
26:36
Speaker 5: them will, but that's.
26:37
Speaker 6: Kind of we might have to get somebody to roll
26:38
Speaker 6: this for you, you know what I mean, Like it's
26:40
Speaker 6: a higher level of love.
26:42
Speaker 3: Look, yeah, it's just it's just simple as easy as
26:45
Speaker 3: it's also a lower price point because taxes in cannabis
26:47
Speaker 3: are crazy, So you know, we've gotten too a space
26:51
Speaker 3: where like our pre rolls are like the highest selling
26:56
Speaker 3: skew in some stores, like across all the brands, and
27:01
Speaker 3: that's not even really geared towards the like the real heads,
27:06
Speaker 3: the real stone of smokers. Di Spencer is a different game, man.
27:09
Speaker 3: It's like especially in Illinois, so.
27:12
Speaker 5: You're final smoker.
27:14
Speaker 3: That's for like just regular people, bro, Like that's one
27:16
Speaker 3: thing your people is like there are so many mothers
27:21
Speaker 3: and grandma's and just like coders and regular working people
27:27
Speaker 3: that really shop in the dispensaries like your weed snobs.
27:31
Speaker 5: Illinois is not there yet. The quality standard is not
27:34
Speaker 5: to that level, Ernests, what's up?
27:36
Speaker 6: You ever walk into a small business and everything just works,
27:40
Speaker 6: Like the checkout is fast, the receipts are digital, tipping
27:43
Speaker 6: is a breeze, and you're out the door before the
27:46
Speaker 6: line even builds. Odds are they're using Square. We love
27:50
Speaker 6: supporting businesses that run on Square because it just feels seamless.
27:54
Speaker 6: Whether it's a local coffee shop, a vendor at a
27:56
Speaker 6: pop up market, or even one of our merch partners.
28:00
Speaker 6: Makes it easy for them to take payments, manage inventory,
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28:07
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28:17
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29:26
Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
29:30
Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador
29:34
Speaker 1: accused of murdering a Texas. Man of Venezuelan charged with
29:38
Speaker 1: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just
29:42
Speaker 1: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President
29:46
Speaker 1: Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy nom the United States
29:49
Speaker 1: Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border
29:54
Speaker 1: crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over
29:58
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand illegal aliens.
30:00
Speaker 2: Have been arrested.
30:01
Speaker 1: If you are here illegally, your next you will be
30:04
Speaker 1: fine nearly one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned and deported,
30:09
Speaker 1: you will never return. But if you register using our
30:12
Speaker 1: CBP home app and leave now, you could be allowed
30:15
Speaker 1: to return legally do what's right. Leave now. Under President
30:20
Speaker 1: Trump America's laws, border and families will.
30:23
Speaker 2: Be protected sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security.
30:27
Speaker 3: Like weed snobs that are my friends will go to
30:30
Speaker 3: LA and just like buy out Jungle Boys or something
30:33
Speaker 3: because it's a flex too, But none of them shop
30:37
Speaker 3: at dispensaries in Illinois. They probably go buy my shit
30:40
Speaker 3: to tell me or say they did, but it's like,
30:42
Speaker 3: I know they don't shop in dispensaries, you know what
30:44
Speaker 3: I mean. I'm not even particularly focusing on them. Ultimately,
30:50
Speaker 3: I do want to onboard our community into the dispensary space.
30:55
Speaker 3: That is one of my aims with this brand and
30:59
Speaker 3: with this move, but I'm also not particularly concerned with
31:04
Speaker 3: it right now because there's so many people that don't
31:08
Speaker 3: even look like us or hang with people that tool.
31:13
Speaker 5: I've seen it.
31:13
Speaker 6: It's like for that professional person who I mean, they
31:16
Speaker 6: might just go out on their break and like I
31:17
Speaker 6: got to take a couple of pulls.
31:18
Speaker 5: It's like I don't have time to take out. We
31:21
Speaker 5: roll it up put like you don't have to do
31:23
Speaker 5: it exactly what I mean.
31:24
Speaker 6: But I was just thinking as you were saying that
31:26
Speaker 6: the ten thousand dollars gas giveaway. I'm thinking about the
31:29
Speaker 6: double entendre. They're like giving out gas. But you said
31:31
Speaker 6: gas is the word.
31:32
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying. So there's a double on
31:33
Speaker 5: tantras that that was the play.
31:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just want to nail the word gas into
31:39
Speaker 3: your mind. So when you think of ninety three boys,
31:41
Speaker 3: then you think gas, you think yellow, So.
31:44
Speaker 4: We'll get by yellow.
31:46
Speaker 3: Just chose it randomly, No, because at the gas station
31:51
Speaker 3: the labels for ninety three or eighty nine are yellow
31:56
Speaker 3: in Chicago at least yellow and black. So that's why
31:59
Speaker 3: I went with that scheme, Like I would like to
32:01
Speaker 3: get to a point where I can do a billboard
32:05
Speaker 3: off the side of the road and all it says
32:08
Speaker 3: is a yellow screen with gas.
32:09
Speaker 5: And black letters, and you know, you just know what
32:11
Speaker 5: it is.
32:11
Speaker 4: It's like spre It's like supreme.
32:13
Speaker 6: Even that it's like uh Berner when you see that
32:16
Speaker 6: blue sea, you see the blue sea and you don't
32:19
Speaker 6: need to see cook.
32:19
Speaker 5: You know, it's like obey, you know that's that was
32:23
Speaker 5: that was crazy. But this isn't it? Like you know
32:25
Speaker 5: what I'm saying.
32:25
Speaker 4: No, But some things are then you.
32:27
Speaker 3: Know, you see, I mean, like having a brand is
32:30
Speaker 3: so strong that you don't even have to put its name.
32:32
Speaker 4: It's like it's like all money in. Yeah, you just
32:35
Speaker 4: see the logo and you know it's already synonymous with Nipsey,
32:39
Speaker 4: Hustle and all money in and a variety of all
32:41
Speaker 4: the different things I come along with it.
32:42
Speaker 3: You spoke, you spoke about the verticals like French Shaw
32:46
Speaker 3: because that's not the name of the brand, but it's
32:48
Speaker 3: anonymous enough stuff.
32:50
Speaker 5: It's anonymous color.
32:51
Speaker 3: You see Crenshaw, Like that's about That's not just the
32:54
Speaker 3: street that's it, you know what I.
32:56
Speaker 6: Mean exactly what are some of the other verticals that
32:58
Speaker 6: you're looking to integrate. You spoke about that, like you
33:02
Speaker 6: have obviously the flower. What else are their products? What
33:05
Speaker 6: else is coming with it?
33:07
Speaker 3: I'm gonna answer that, But I just you sparked my
33:10
Speaker 3: mind with that, because the person I learned about the
33:14
Speaker 3: laws of branding through learned them from the guy that
33:17
Speaker 3: taught Nipsey. So I think that brother's name is brand Engine,
33:22
Speaker 3: is what he calls himself. And so my big homie
33:26
Speaker 3: is La Ran Stops and Brands.
33:29
Speaker 5: Of fifteen hundred and nothing.
33:30
Speaker 3: So those are Nipsey Hustles Day one primary producers Inglewood
33:36
Speaker 3: La Guys And so he's the one that taught me
33:39
Speaker 3: the laws of branding. And interestingly enough, I was trying
33:43
Speaker 3: to think, what was Nipsey's word? Crenshaw is definitely one
33:46
Speaker 3: of those words, you know what I'm saying, Marathon and Marathon.
33:50
Speaker 3: He changed his colors sometimes between blue and red, you
33:53
Speaker 3: know what I mean, But that was his color scheme.
33:55
Speaker 3: Those were his words, you know what I mean. And
33:57
Speaker 3: so in founding this, I was like, what's my color scheme?
34:01
Speaker 3: One of my words? Let me drill those into the
34:02
Speaker 3: mind that.
34:03
Speaker 4: Well, you know, I don't know if you know, but
34:04
Speaker 4: we did the all money in interview.
34:06
Speaker 5: I saw it. It was hard as funciate.
34:08
Speaker 4: So when we spoke to JP, who's Marathon, and he
34:12
Speaker 4: was saying that they got that their logo from Time
34:15
Speaker 4: magazine and they took it from Time magazine and they
34:18
Speaker 4: did and they was like, you know, red was an
34:20
Speaker 4: interesting choice of color because most people would have assumed
34:22
Speaker 4: that he would do blue grips, but they just wanted
34:25
Speaker 4: to do red. Thought they stood out more pop more
34:28
Speaker 4: got people's attentions. So it's interesting that you guys both
34:31
Speaker 4: kind of learned that similar from the same person.
34:34
Speaker 5: And that red is that color.
34:35
Speaker 6: Like you just brought up coke, but we could have
34:36
Speaker 6: brought up KFC, and we could have brought the McDonald.
34:38
Speaker 5: Yeah, but they all have that similar red.
34:40
Speaker 3: And that's another thing about is that all of these
34:42
Speaker 3: colors they automatically transmit certain ideas and feeling films, you know,
34:49
Speaker 3: off top, like blue is kind of cool, you know
34:51
Speaker 3: what I mean. Red is obviously bombastic, it stands out.
34:55
Speaker 3: Yellow is playful, it's fun, you know, And that was
34:58
Speaker 3: another reason for going yellow with Annabis, because it's associated
35:02
Speaker 3: with fun.
35:02
Speaker 4: Off top, I think I think I will tell you
35:04
Speaker 4: when I see yellow and black because the killer bee
35:06
Speaker 4: know what I'm.
35:06
Speaker 5: Saying, But you put the black end. It's a little
35:08
Speaker 5: hard too.
35:09
Speaker 6: This is now not as you said that. This is
35:10
Speaker 6: like the Triumph video. I think methods wearing this. Think
35:13
Speaker 6: you you think.
35:14
Speaker 5: He was Okay, I gotta go look, I definitely think
35:19
Speaker 5: he was.
35:19
Speaker 4: Yeah.
35:20
Speaker 3: With the verticals, man, the aim is to be completely
35:23
Speaker 3: vertically integrated. Currently we're doing well with just branding and
35:29
Speaker 3: basically white labeling, but we cultivate as well.
35:32
Speaker 5: We've been doing that before.
35:33
Speaker 3: We launched the brand, so to have our own cultivation facility,
35:39
Speaker 3: to build that and expand, to have our own dispensaries. Definitely,
35:47
Speaker 3: to have our own transportation, our own infusion. That's you
35:51
Speaker 3: know the process of making oils and rods and and
35:56
Speaker 3: cartridges and vape pins and atibules. The goal is to
36:02
Speaker 3: have every step of the food chain, of the supply chain.
36:06
Speaker 5: Where ninety three boys come from the name.
36:09
Speaker 3: I'm born in nineteen ninety three, and my partner is
36:12
Speaker 3: born in nineteen ninety three, damn near our whole team
36:14
Speaker 3: is born in nineteen ninety three. And the gas you
36:18
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying as well, gas as well, all
36:24
Speaker 3: gas no breaks.
36:26
Speaker 5: Damn, that's a good I never even thought of using that.
36:29
Speaker 5: We do.
36:30
Speaker 3: We say, never run out of gas, that's the one
36:31
Speaker 3: we use. But all gas no breaks is crazy there.
36:35
Speaker 5: It is never run out of gas. See like that.
36:38
Speaker 5: Check the bags if they got it any damn. You
36:41
Speaker 5: know some people.
36:43
Speaker 4: So let's let's talk about Africa. Back, go back to
36:46
Speaker 4: that for a minute. So being that you know you
36:50
Speaker 4: have half of your roots in Africa, half your roots
36:52
Speaker 4: in America, your bio racial is a variety of different
36:55
Speaker 4: things going on. But it's a whole wave of people
36:57
Speaker 4: go back and going back to Africa now from afrobeats
37:00
Speaker 4: to the year the return. Ghana has done a great
37:02
Speaker 4: job as far as marketing themselves marketing, they've done a
37:05
Speaker 4: great job. They've done the best job out of African
37:08
Speaker 4: countries and marketing themselves to African Americans and Black people
37:12
Speaker 4: in America. And it's been a pipeline of people going
37:16
Speaker 4: from America to Ghana. I think the next phase right
37:21
Speaker 4: now it's more so on like you know, entertainment for
37:25
Speaker 4: the festivals and going to see the slave dungeons and
37:29
Speaker 4: different things that nature. But I think the next phase
37:31
Speaker 4: has to be like now, real infrastructure and real business
37:33
Speaker 4: and that that to me, I think is really when
37:38
Speaker 4: changes start to happen. So are you interested? Are you
37:42
Speaker 4: looking at actually creating business or investing in Africa and Ghana?
37:47
Speaker 5: Yeah?
37:48
Speaker 3: Man, We just launched the Black Star Line Festival to
37:52
Speaker 3: thank you, bro, And that was my entire mission, is
37:56
Speaker 3: that I believe that the collaboration of Black Americans and
37:59
Speaker 3: content into Africans and the building of businesses and lines
38:04
Speaker 3: of communication is perhaps the most promising route to freedom
38:11
Speaker 3: and to overcoming the common enemy.
38:14
Speaker 5: And the oppressions that we all face.
38:17
Speaker 3: And Ghana has been this, you know, Ghana has been
38:20
Speaker 3: this gateway since inception. Ghana gained independence in nineteen fifty
38:26
Speaker 3: seven and doctor King Coret Scott King were present at
38:33
Speaker 3: the nation's coronation. You know, Martin Luther King, I mean,
38:37
Speaker 3: Malcolm X was speaking at the University of Ghana.
38:40
Speaker 5: Early Maya Angelo wrote a book in Ghana. Very early.
38:45
Speaker 3: Stevie Wonder was performing Tina Turner. Ghana's been this, you know.
38:49
Speaker 3: But everything is cyclical, so that is coming back around
38:54
Speaker 3: in a moment when we're all visibly aware of what's
38:58
Speaker 3: going on.
38:59
Speaker 5: You know what I mean.
39:00
Speaker 3: It the perfect place for Black Americans to come and
39:05
Speaker 3: build businesses and you know, industries, and the continent of
39:10
Speaker 3: Africa has so much promise, Like Africa is constantly growing,
39:17
Speaker 3: whereas populations elsewhere are dwindling or slowing down.
39:21
Speaker 5: You know what I mean. Africa population rate, fastest growth rate,
39:25
Speaker 5: very young.
39:26
Speaker 3: And not only that, Africa is one of the most
39:31
Speaker 3: interconnected as far as mobile money, like Africans are using
39:38
Speaker 3: mobile money transfer services more than anyone else. Like I
39:42
Speaker 3: can't even go to the grocery store in my hood
39:45
Speaker 3: and tap my phone.
39:46
Speaker 5: You know what I mean.
39:47
Speaker 3: I get frustrated because if I leave my wallet, I
39:49
Speaker 3: got to go home. You can send someone money mobilely
39:54
Speaker 3: anywhere in Ghana to a street vendor selling mangos.
39:58
Speaker 5: I could pay her.
39:58
Speaker 4: We spoke about that with We went to Nigeria and
40:01
Speaker 4: there's the whole thing in Kenya called a pes I
40:04
Speaker 4: think a peso. It's a lot of different places in
40:07
Speaker 4: Africa where the mobile especially in areas where there's no
40:12
Speaker 4: like banking or in rural areas. And he was saying,
40:17
Speaker 4: like I think he invested in the company I forgot
40:19
Speaker 4: the name, you.
40:20
Speaker 5: Call it Momo and Ghana.
40:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, so they was telling us about how what you
40:24
Speaker 4: just said, as far as the cell phone banking and
40:27
Speaker 4: all of that stuff is more advanced over there than
40:30
Speaker 4: other places. Out of necessity, it's just.
40:32
Speaker 5: More yeah, and it's more ubiquitous, just like everywhere.
40:35
Speaker 3: Like I'm telling the truth Chicago, I'll go to the
40:37
Speaker 3: grocery store and cannot pay if I forgot my wallet.
40:42
Speaker 3: I can buy mangos on the side of the road
40:44
Speaker 3: using my phone in Ghana and to anyone within industrious mindset,
40:51
Speaker 3: that should immediately spark possibility.
40:54
Speaker 5: You know, I don't know exactly what you do.
40:57
Speaker 3: Maybe it's investing in one of those mobile money companies,
41:00
Speaker 3: maybe it's starting something, maybe it's becoming a facilitator, you know.
41:06
Speaker 3: But there are so many opportunities in that way that
41:11
Speaker 3: we should be taking advantage of as Black Americans.
41:14
Speaker 5: But also.
41:17
Speaker 3: We have to come and do it respectfully and we
41:20
Speaker 3: have to do it ethically man. So that's why with
41:24
Speaker 3: the Black Star Line Festival, we wanted to make sure
41:26
Speaker 3: that we came in and didn't just take, because that's
41:30
Speaker 3: the narrative of interaction with Africa is extraction and come
41:35
Speaker 3: take the diamonds, take the gold, take the human beings,
41:38
Speaker 3: take the coal tan out of Congo, take the oil
41:41
Speaker 3: out of Nigeria, and it finances someone else. And so
41:45
Speaker 3: as revolutionary African people, we couldn't come back into the
41:50
Speaker 3: space and.
41:51
Speaker 5: Just like instantly just want to make money.
41:53
Speaker 3: So it was like, make the Black Star Line Festival
41:57
Speaker 3: a free festival for the people. I went with my
42:00
Speaker 3: father started building clean water facilities. A lot of communities
42:07
Speaker 3: don't have clean water in Ghana, across Africa, across the world,
42:12
Speaker 3: but definitely in Africa. That's a big struggle is to
42:15
Speaker 3: have clean drinking water, and so we started building clean
42:18
Speaker 3: water facilities and making sure that we're stepping in with
42:23
Speaker 3: respect and providing.
42:26
Speaker 5: For the people and bringing something to the table.
42:28
Speaker 6: You're not only just providing for the people, but you're
42:30
Speaker 6: bringing artists, right. So you had Eric Abadud exactly, you
42:34
Speaker 6: had Toby shout out to Toby, that's that's the family.
42:37
Speaker 6: But you have Tea paint out there, jeremind another Chicago guy.
42:41
Speaker 5: What was that like?
42:42
Speaker 6: Artists and yeah, and then you combined them with Ghanian
42:45
Speaker 6: artists and just to have, like you said, a free concert.
42:48
Speaker 5: Going as a kid and seeing that now the last year.
42:50
Speaker 6: That's why when you first mentioned it and Black Star Line,
42:53
Speaker 6: I mean, just to name itself, I'm Jamaican descent, oh dope,
42:56
Speaker 6: and so you know obviously Marcus Garvey and the homicipe that.
43:00
Speaker 6: But what did that feel like you watching it as
43:02
Speaker 6: a kid and knowing what you just brought back to
43:04
Speaker 6: this place that means so much you.
43:06
Speaker 3: It was a surreal moment and a blessing and experience.
43:11
Speaker 3: I'm just eternally grateful for. I don't think I could
43:14
Speaker 3: have ever imagined that as a kid, because Ghana and
43:18
Speaker 3: America felt so worlds apart and I couldn't have seen it,
43:23
Speaker 3: you know, But in that moment, watching like these young
43:28
Speaker 3: Guyanian artists called the co Americans who do Ghanian drill
43:32
Speaker 3: music and they wear like traditional war garments and turn
43:38
Speaker 3: up to crazy drill beats, like watching them jump on
43:43
Speaker 3: and off stage right before like Dave Chappelle and Quality
43:48
Speaker 3: and Jeremiah and all that shit, I was like, it's crazy,
43:53
Speaker 3: just came together, you know what I mean, Like so
43:56
Speaker 3: so blessed.
43:57
Speaker 5: Because it was just a vision, you know what I mean.
43:58
Speaker 5: It was just an idea that I had and need
44:04
Speaker 5: that I saw.
44:04
Speaker 3: I mean, I do think that the greatest businesses are
44:08
Speaker 3: built out of necessity.
44:09
Speaker 4: Obviously, well how did you how is it profitable? Or
44:11
Speaker 4: how how how do you how is it a business case?
44:14
Speaker 4: I'm sure you got to pay these artists different things
44:15
Speaker 4: that nature. So if it's free sprand new you know
44:18
Speaker 4: what I mean.
44:18
Speaker 3: But if you look at Global Citizen Festival, for example,
44:25
Speaker 3: this is like a philanthropic festival that they do in
44:29
Speaker 3: New York.
44:29
Speaker 5: Yep, you know what, they just did.
44:31
Speaker 3: It in Ghana too, and you know they're raising money.
44:37
Speaker 5: I'll tell you the truth.
44:38
Speaker 3: And people ain't hurting, bro, you know what I'm saying.
44:40
Speaker 3: Like one of my big companies told me something a
44:42
Speaker 3: long time ago. He was like, it's possible to do
44:45
Speaker 3: well while doing good, you know, and I think that,
44:47
Speaker 3: like right now, we're still figuring out what it really
44:50
Speaker 3: looks like, but I know that there is a way
44:55
Speaker 3: in which we can be providing free experiences for some,
44:58
Speaker 3: or reduced income experiences for some, selling high value VIP.
45:04
Speaker 5: Tickets for others.
45:05
Speaker 7: Sponsorships on sponsorships is the main key actually, and it's
45:10
Speaker 7: like creating an experience that is enjoyable, safe and comfortable
45:16
Speaker 7: for everyone at their level of luxury.
45:20
Speaker 5: You know.
45:20
Speaker 3: It's like, if you ain't at no level of luxury,
45:23
Speaker 3: you're going to be happy to get into a festival
45:25
Speaker 3: for free at all, or get into a music festival
45:27
Speaker 3: at all.
45:28
Speaker 5: Because the reality of what's.
45:30
Speaker 3: Going on and Gana particularly is that these festivals are
45:34
Speaker 3: primarily targeted at Americans and like Europeans, many African Europeans.
45:42
Speaker 3: But those are the people that can afford them. Like
45:44
Speaker 3: my cousins can't afford that, you know what I mean,
45:46
Speaker 3: There's no way if they didn't come with me, they
45:49
Speaker 3: wouldn't be and they wouldn't be able to No, I
45:52
Speaker 3: mean think about it. Tickets are maybe at the low end,
45:57
Speaker 3: one hundred bucks, one hundred fifty bucks.
45:58
Speaker 4: Are doing it again this year.
46:00
Speaker 3: We're doing it again. Tell where you're going. I think
46:01
Speaker 3: we're moving it. We're working on building it in Jamaica.
46:06
Speaker 3: To my heart, Yeah, working on building it in Jamaica.
46:10
Speaker 3: And yeah, you know, my family can't afford that. Tickets
46:13
Speaker 3: are one hundred and fifty dollars. My cousin works for
46:15
Speaker 3: like eighty dollars a month, so it doesn't equate, you
46:19
Speaker 3: know what I mean. So he's going to be happy,
46:22
Speaker 3: or somebody in his position is gonna be happy just
46:24
Speaker 3: to be in the festival. But then you got another
46:26
Speaker 3: person that you know, drills oil over here, and like,
46:31
Speaker 3: they don't want to be over there with everybody else.
46:34
Speaker 3: They gonna want to be in a VIP area and
46:37
Speaker 3: they want to pay for it, and that's where they'll
46:39
Speaker 3: be comfortable and they'll be happy.
46:40
Speaker 5: So I want.
46:41
Speaker 3: To create and tailor and experience where everybody can enjoy
46:44
Speaker 3: themself in the way that they see fit.
46:47
Speaker 5: You know what I mean is the Jamaica idea to have.
46:51
Speaker 6: I mean going from America having dynamian presence inside of
46:55
Speaker 6: Jamaica with Jamaican artist.
46:56
Speaker 3: As well one thousand and one million. I mean, the
47:01
Speaker 3: idea was always something that was traveling. Like when I
47:04
Speaker 3: first started to consider this, I was leaving Ghana and
47:08
Speaker 3: going to South Africa, and I was spending time in
47:11
Speaker 3: South Africa doing a podcast with some young brothers that
47:14
Speaker 3: have a thing called Sobering Podcast. Hip hop is like
47:18
Speaker 3: crazy in South Africa. They got a vibrant scene thriving.
47:21
Speaker 3: And these guys knew all my music, you know what
47:25
Speaker 3: I mean. They knew like verses I forgot about from
47:28
Speaker 3: seven years ago, you know what I mean.
47:30
Speaker 5: My homies, my whole clique, they knew everything.
47:32
Speaker 3: And I was sitting at the hotel that night, just
47:37
Speaker 3: like eating din on a roof in Johannesburg, thinking like,
47:40
Speaker 3: how is it that I've never performed in Africa? Like
47:45
Speaker 3: I'm African, I'm a first generation immigrant, and I've performed
47:50
Speaker 3: Europe a million times, you know what I mean, Like
47:53
Speaker 3: not just main cities, not just London, also leads in Liverpool,
47:57
Speaker 3: and not just Berlin, Dusseldorf, just Amsterdam, Oslo, Australia, South Korea, everywhere, bro,
48:07
Speaker 3: except for the continent of my origin, and so I
48:11
Speaker 3: just started to think there must be a way that
48:14
Speaker 3: I can create a cultural experience where I'm bringing the
48:16
Speaker 3: black artists because I know that the vast majority of
48:19
Speaker 3: them have the same experience as me.
48:20
Speaker 5: We go where we get booked and where the money's
48:22
Speaker 5: coming from.
48:23
Speaker 3: So it's not Africa, but somes got to give because
48:27
Speaker 3: these people love the music.
48:29
Speaker 5: They listening to the music and it's not peripheral. It's
48:32
Speaker 5: like they.
48:33
Speaker 3: Love the music. You know what I'm saying. It is
48:35
Speaker 3: significant to them in their lives. They're living with it,
48:38
Speaker 3: they're learning from it, and they wish we would come.
48:42
Speaker 5: So I knew there would be a way, and I
48:45
Speaker 5: knew that it.
48:45
Speaker 3: Would involve a lot of favors, a lot of friends,
48:50
Speaker 3: and just like people believing in that vision and that
48:52
Speaker 3: it should move around.
48:53
Speaker 5: So I was there in South Africa.
48:54
Speaker 3: Obviously, I'm thinking Ghana, you know, I'm thinking about Chance,
48:59
Speaker 3: I'm thinking about just other friends of mine like Kaylani
49:02
Speaker 3: and you know, just big artists with a revolutionary mindset.
49:06
Speaker 3: And I was also thinking it should be in South Africa,
49:10
Speaker 3: should be in Ethiopia.
49:12
Speaker 5: China was the one that suggested Jamaica.
49:15
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying because his grandfather was Garbiac
49:19
Speaker 3: and so like now I think.
49:21
Speaker 5: We're kind of like just thinking about drawing like.
49:23
Speaker 3: A global star, you know, triangle too, I mean shape,
49:28
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, like globally of global blackness
49:32
Speaker 3: and painting that picture.
49:35
Speaker 5: I love it. I love it. We saw a chance
49:36
Speaker 5: in Chicago at Soul House. He was telling us about it.
49:39
Speaker 5: I was doing it, so.
49:42
Speaker 4: Everybody was there that was.
49:45
Speaker 5: He was like block at this old house.
49:48
Speaker 4: Everybody told us about it.
49:52
Speaker 6: We said that we we we weren't going to make it.
49:54
Speaker 6: But this year we will be in Ghanna at the
49:57
Speaker 6: end of December an event. We're doing an event out there.
50:00
Speaker 4: So we got a show called market Mondays. We told
50:02
Speaker 4: about stocks investing. So we were on a world tour
50:04
Speaker 4: with that show. We did Toronto, we did London, We're
50:06
Speaker 4: going to Chicago. We did la and then the last
50:09
Speaker 4: stop of the year is going to be in Ghana
50:11
Speaker 4: in December.
50:12
Speaker 5: That's great, We'll come to Chicago and Ghana.
50:13
Speaker 3: Right now, you're speaking to people out there, Yeah, you
50:15
Speaker 3: know who you're talking to.
50:16
Speaker 4: Yet we're still working on it.
50:18
Speaker 3: Let's talk man, Let me, let me think about that
50:21
Speaker 3: because I got some I got, I got an ill
50:23
Speaker 3: nigga for.
50:24
Speaker 5: You got to talk to talk to chatter. I got chatter.
50:28
Speaker 3: He owns like all the hotels that we stay and
50:30
Speaker 3: he was a huge helping just like a blessing in
50:34
Speaker 3: the festival because he's got these brilliant hotels, one of
50:38
Speaker 3: them called the One Oxford Hotel, and he gave us
50:41
Speaker 3: mad rooms, you know what I mean. And that's where
50:44
Speaker 3: Toby was staying and Jeremiah was staying, and but Cheddar
50:49
Speaker 3: also does like natural resources and thrilling a lot of development,
50:55
Speaker 3: and that I could talk to, I think it would
50:58
Speaker 3: be nice.
50:59
Speaker 4: Let's let's check, lets connect the doughts on that.
51:01
Speaker 5: We gotta do it.
51:03
Speaker 3: But he's I'm telling you, like this dude will blow
51:07
Speaker 3: your mind though, because like his ambition is so boundless.
51:12
Speaker 3: See I mean when when I took chance over there
51:15
Speaker 3: to sit down with him and we were just talking
51:16
Speaker 3: about him helping us out with the festival, and then
51:19
Speaker 3: he took us into this room. I hope I'm not
51:22
Speaker 3: like blowing his secret or something, but took us into
51:25
Speaker 3: this room where it was like maybe four times three
51:29
Speaker 3: times the size of this room, but it was all
51:31
Speaker 3: full of miniature models of this smart city that he's
51:35
Speaker 3: planning in the central region of Ghana.
51:37
Speaker 5: Wow.
51:37
Speaker 3: And so it's like he's starting with the industrial component
51:41
Speaker 3: and like you know, certain like mining and minerals, et cetera,
51:47
Speaker 3: and that's.
51:47
Speaker 5: Gonna be the you know, foundation of the city.
51:50
Speaker 3: Then over here at a safe distance is like the
51:53
Speaker 3: residential and the universities he's gonna build. And then like
52:00
Speaker 3: like you know, the art at the beginning is designed
52:02
Speaker 3: by David I. J who's a Ghanian architect who did
52:05
Speaker 3: the Smithsonian, et cetera.
52:07
Speaker 5: It's working on affirmation, Yo, the man is on a
52:10
Speaker 5: high level.
52:10
Speaker 3: Like I'm talking about this space times three all full
52:14
Speaker 3: of miniature models of this city.
52:16
Speaker 5: He's building this like city of the future.
52:19
Speaker 4: No, definitely definitely want to build it. Yes, it's definitely
52:22
Speaker 4: want to connect building. Yeah, definitely, and you pop out
52:26
Speaker 4: if you could make it, man.
52:28
Speaker 5: Yeah, man, No, I would love to.
52:29
Speaker 4: Man.
52:29
Speaker 5: I'm so glad y'all going down there.
52:31
Speaker 3: And honestly, it's just like it's so dope to see
52:35
Speaker 3: the bridge like being built and used and like to
52:40
Speaker 3: be a part of it. And I know it's going
52:44
Speaker 3: to keep going and just turn into so many more
52:47
Speaker 3: beautiful things. I don't know that there's been a time
52:50
Speaker 3: when it has been a trend before.
52:53
Speaker 5: For black people to go to Africa.
52:55
Speaker 4: That's the fact.
52:56
Speaker 5: I mean, that's part of the mission.
52:57
Speaker 6: And you know, just reading from how you envisioned it,
53:00
Speaker 6: it was let's create the new narrative. Yeah, if we
53:04
Speaker 6: have an opportunity for our platform and for what you're
53:06
Speaker 6: doing to shape the new narrative of Ghana, let's do
53:09
Speaker 6: it right. We were joking about Snowfall, but when I
53:12
Speaker 6: saw the episode of how beautiful they made Ghana look,
53:15
Speaker 6: I'm like, so far who has done this?
53:17
Speaker 5: And so like, we're going there with the same attent.
53:18
Speaker 5: Let's change the narrative.
53:19
Speaker 6: Let's make sure that we can bridge, you know, African
53:22
Speaker 6: Americans with the continent.
53:25
Speaker 3: That Snowfall ship was so ill and it also did
53:27
Speaker 3: show though that it's like all the shit is cyclical,
53:30
Speaker 3: like it has happened. But we're just in a time
53:33
Speaker 3: when everything's more visible, you know what I'm saying. And
53:38
Speaker 3: so it's been easier in the past to convince us
53:43
Speaker 3: as Black Americans, as Africans that were divided that we
53:46
Speaker 3: don't respect or carry about each other It's been easier
53:49
Speaker 3: to convince us of that than it is now because
53:52
Speaker 3: now it's like, no, you can see people do can
53:54
Speaker 3: people want to lan.
53:55
Speaker 6: It's like when Nas was saying it in Belly, he
53:57
Speaker 6: was going, it was like Africa and that was so
54:01
Speaker 6: why he wanted to go. We didn't see the visual
54:03
Speaker 6: aspects of what he was looking at, and so like
54:05
Speaker 6: to have this generation to have technology advance to a
54:08
Speaker 6: point was like, no, this is what's happening, y'all should go.
54:11
Speaker 5: We was on Nigeria.
54:12
Speaker 6: I remember sitting that and looking out and they goes
54:16
Speaker 6: and I'm like, I've never seen a beach in Africa before,
54:18
Speaker 6: and I'm sitting I'm like, this feels like this could
54:20
Speaker 6: be Miami. The way this looks that nobody's ever showed
54:23
Speaker 6: it to us before.
54:24
Speaker 3: So like, damn, that's crazy because Africa's beaches are shitting
54:26
Speaker 3: on Miami.
54:27
Speaker 4: Bro.
54:28
Speaker 3: This is what I'm saying, Like there's a reason why
54:31
Speaker 3: they came to them beaches and was like, oh, yeah,
54:33
Speaker 3: we gotta run this place.
54:37
Speaker 5: It's like, yo, the wealth.
54:39
Speaker 3: And that's the thing is like Africa has been portrayed
54:43
Speaker 3: in a narrative of poverty and of lack but that's
54:47
Speaker 3: the same reason why they called Iceland that, you know,
54:52
Speaker 3: when it's really like a gorgeous place, they want to
54:54
Speaker 3: send you off all green, you know what I mean,
54:56
Speaker 3: Like it's beautiful, it's all green.
54:58
Speaker 5: They called it Iceland so that you wouldn't come.
55:00
Speaker 3: Like Africa has been portrayed as poverty and lack when
55:04
Speaker 3: in fact it's like the most resource rich continent on
55:09
Speaker 3: the planet. And that's not just the gold in the ground,
55:12
Speaker 3: that the diamonds in the mines, that the koltan and
55:14
Speaker 3: our iPhones, like that's literally the beaches, the like wildlife,
55:20
Speaker 3: the water, the fruit. It's like I'll be sitting in
55:23
Speaker 3: Ghana sometimes, like I don't know how I've been tricked
55:28
Speaker 3: to think in the city it's beautiful, you know what
55:30
Speaker 3: I mean, Like I had to find beauty in it,
55:33
Speaker 3: you know, but it's like that's real beauty, that's actual
55:36
Speaker 3: natural beauty.
55:37
Speaker 6: Like that shit is good for your spirit, you know
55:39
Speaker 6: what I'm saying. Yeah, I read that like that was
55:42
Speaker 6: a place that you go to meditate. I'm like, you
55:45
Speaker 6: makes sense to it makes.
55:46
Speaker 4: Sense, Vic. I know, we gotta run. My brother appreciate you, no,
55:51
Speaker 4: appreciate you all. Anything that you want to make the
55:54
Speaker 4: people aware your website for your cannabis brain anything like that.
55:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, man, that's ninety three boys dot com. You can
56:01
Speaker 3: follow us on Instagram at ninety three Boys with a
56:03
Speaker 3: Z b O y Z, follow me at vic mensa
56:07
Speaker 3: on everything, and uh, you know, if you.
56:09
Speaker 5: Come to Chicago, man, come shop with us. Man, you
56:11
Speaker 5: know what I mean. We'll be out here sometime soon too.
56:14
Speaker 3: We will be in Chicago, Yes we will, patron, I
56:17
Speaker 3: got y'all when y'all coming, man, I'll just make.
56:20
Speaker 5: October twenty second. Hey, let's take a note of that
56:23
Speaker 5: so we can Yes, sir.
56:25
Speaker 4: If you're too easy for real, because the uh, the
56:31
Speaker 4: music is coming out right now.
56:33
Speaker 3: And I got a new song called Swish that's me
56:37
Speaker 3: a chance and G Eazy just came out a few
56:40
Speaker 3: days ago. The video is on the way. That's what
56:43
Speaker 3: this jacket is from. It's from the video. That's why
56:45
Speaker 3: I got this.
56:46
Speaker 5: You know what I mean. So go stream.
56:48
Speaker 3: Swish, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, wherever you consume music.
56:52
Speaker 5: It's available album on the way.
56:55
Speaker 4: There you have it, ladies and gentlemen, Thank you guys
56:58
Speaker 4: for rocking with us. We'll see you next week.
57:00
Speaker 5: Pace, Pace an.
57:01
Speaker 1: Illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child in Massachusetts.
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