May 20, 2022 • 24 mins
Rapper, actor, and serial entrepreneur Ja Rule joins the podcast to talk about his lucrative journey in the industry. Additionally, he shares his love of tech, developing the ICONN app, and his aspirations for the tech space to be more diverse.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Today's guest is a rapper, actor, celebrity,
(00:20):
and serial entrepreneur. He has been nominated for two American
Music Awards and four Grammys. He's a platinum selling rap
artist with picks that I know. You know, we all
still damping like Halla, Halla, living it up. Put it
on me, Um, I won't sing for you guys, and
that's always on time. So let's get started. Money Movers,
please welcome the icon himself, job Rule. Hi, Welcome to
(00:44):
the podcast. We are so excited to have you on
the podcast today. Your story, your trajectory through music, entertainment, entrepreneurship,
it it is so inspiring and I'm just really excited
to have our Money Moves audience privilege, the privilege of
(01:06):
having you here today. Um, privilege is all my thanks
for having me. So I want to get started because
I think a lot of our audience knows you, of
course for your multiple you know, platinum records and hit
selling hits, but also you've been a long time entrepreneur.
So I want to take us back to the early
days of your music career and get sort of your
(01:26):
perspective on what it was like making money and building wealth.
Did you have a goal in mind, um, and sort
of what your thoughts were in the early days. No,
no goal at all. I was winning it. I'm not
gonna lie, Yeah I was. I was really young when
I started making money. And you know, being thrust into
(01:48):
the financial world, you know, with no properly you know,
training or education or anything like that, it's very scary,
you know, and and it's and so I struggled with
a lot, you know in the beginning. You know, I
didn't I didn't know how to do anything but spend
(02:09):
the money and that that comes very easy and very matter. Yeah,
so you know, um, I had to learn some hard
lessons too, alone the way, you know, And and that's fine.
You know, when you're twenty years old and you make
you know, your first millions of dollars, you you can
(02:29):
you shot to take care of those who don't have
you know, your family, your you know, your your parents
and your grandparents and cousins and you and everybody, and
so you know, you learn those lessons young and early,
which was I guess that was a blessing in disguise
to be able to learn those lessons that early, that young,
you know, but then you know, I learned, I learned
(02:51):
that in order to be successful in finance, you have
to have multiple revelue streams. And that that's what I
learned really really early too. And and God blessed that
because you know, as as black people in our community,
we always talk about saving money. You know, save money,
(03:11):
save your money, save your money, that's the mom absolutely yeah.
But but what I learned is, you know, even when
you save your money, you know, if you don't have
enough money or a lot of money, you can't really
live off your interests unless you're really really rich, wealthy
for that for that matter. And so you you start
(03:31):
to learn that you need to invest your money. If
you just save your money, eventually inflation and you know,
things that that makes you will catch up to you.
And so where did you start learning these because I
think oftentimes in our community you sort of touched on
this a little bit. You know, we're not taught these
lessons from our parents. And I know, for example, you
grew up in a in a household that was faith
(03:54):
faith based in Jehovah's witness was this taught in your
household save your money, um or like, who were the
real key people that helped you to learn these lessons
along the way. Well, my mom didn't have no money,
so she she she didn't have the tools to really
teach me. She you know, she worked very hard and
(04:14):
you know too, three jobs whatever. She could keep food
on the table, keep roofull of my head, you know,
clothes on my back, that sort of thing. But my
grandparents were very um intricate, you know, very very influential. Um.
My grandfather especially, he was just a hard work that
he he just knew how to provide whatever, whatever it took.
(04:36):
You know, whether he worked five six jobs, it didn't matter.
You know. His thing was just work hard and you know, provide.
So I learned how to work hard, you know, I
learned a great work ethic for my grandfather that anything
you want to have in life or any work, you
(04:58):
gotta work hard for. Yeah. But then it came a
time where I started to also realize that, you know,
you have to work smarter and not harder. And I'm
not gonna always be in a position to work as
hard for my money. You know as you get older,
in aids and stuff like that. So investments started to
be something that I looked at and started to learn
(05:19):
that if you invest your money, it can actually turn
you a return. And and you know in a different way.
You know, not in three percent five percent, you know,
one percent, zero, zero point two percent interests like they
do at the bank, but you know in in in
(05:41):
the in the sense of maybe ten xt in your
money or twenty xting you, or in the text space
a hundred next in your money. So those those were
the things that I started to learn and and I
wanted to learn more. And so I was a high
school dropout. And so um, when I when I went
away for a little while, my little vacation there, I uh,
(06:07):
I got my g D. Like it was a sabbatical.
It was abbatical. Yes, So my little sabbatical, I got
my g D. I I thought that was very important
for me to do that, and in order for me
to see higher education, I needed that as well. So
when I came home, I, um, I also took the
Harvard Business online Business. Yeah, I I also completed that
(06:34):
and and that was, you know, important to me. And
I'm in the process of taking some more courses with
all right now, but you know those those things were
important to me, not only for myself but for my kids.
I preach education to my children, and it's kind of
hypocritical if you don't have an education. No, you didn't
go to school. Yeah, but I think it's like generationally,
we just try to do better, right, We looked back
(06:55):
at our grandparents, our parents, and we just try to
do better. But I like that you're putting your money
where your mouth is because I know kids today we'll
call you on it. Yeah, absolutely will. So so I
went in that for me and from my kids, so
I can you know, actually you know, talk that talk
to them and and really mean it and be an
example of it. So let's get into this idea where
(07:16):
you were talking about, you know, multiple streams of income,
making your money work for yourselves, and you mentioned technology.
So before you sort of got into tech, what were
some of the other areas that were interesting you interesting
you um in terms of investing or um starting businesses
and oh you know, um. First, you know, we got
(07:37):
into the normal things that hip hop kind of gravitating
towards after you know, making the music thin and stuff.
You know, we gotta clothing and yeah, yeah, liquor stuff.
So we have my first adventure into business kind of
uh with investment was was my clothing line. Irvan Jeffrey
(08:00):
and me and I went into this business not knowing
anything about the clothing business. This is a great lasson
for us too because, uh so, a lot of those
deals that you've seen early on, like you know those
those Seawan John deal, Rockaway deals, you know those type
of deals, they were all like really like eight percent
(08:21):
ten percent deals that they did, they didn't you know,
they didn't assume any of the risk. Then you know,
the companies took all the risk and put up all
the money and basically they just had to promote you know,
the thing for their for their you know eight percent,
and they were making a lot of money doing But
me and Yady were like, well, why should we take
(08:43):
eight percent of it when we can have more of it?
It sounds good. What what we didn't understand about the
clothing businesses the how do you get as a clothe
the line. The more money you have to spend, you
put the clothes in more doors, and so you actually
(09:07):
need some financeers, some type of you know, uh financial backing,
you know, you know, something to to actually expirehead just
because you'll find your stuff going broke with a successful company. Yeah,
and people don't understand this about scaling a business. Yeah,
this part we had to learn the hard way. So, um,
(09:29):
we owned a hundred percent of a company that was
starting to take off. What was drained in our pockets deeply,
and we were taking money from here to put here
and that's never the way you kind of want to
do business. You know this, the actual business wasn't actually
turning a profit for us, even though we was having success,
and so we were taking money from music and putting
(09:51):
it into the clothes and that's just not the way
you do things. In a long story short, we ended
up breaking even on the business because we so to
Samsung and got our money back basically because it was
it was becoming a new for us. But but that
was a learning thing. That was a learning process for us.
You know, sometimes taking a percentage of something no, I
(10:17):
love you that is more than happening of something that
is draining. So you know, these are things you learned
along the way. We had to learn that the hard way.
But you know, I wouldn't have it any other way,
because that that when you learned them that way, you
really learned the lesson and you go forward, you know,
so fast forward. Now you've got multiple different business interests
(10:40):
and you've dived into this technology startups and investing in
tech companies. You've launched several of your own. That is
really great. What got you excited about the text text
technology and startups? Well, the thing that got me really
interested in tech. First of all, it's a space where
I can be very creative. I'm I'm a very creative person,
(11:03):
you know. Um, I'm an artist, artist, you know, and
tech allows me to be an artist still and in
many in many ways. And for me that that was exciting.
But the most exciting things and the thing that has
really really that I really really love about tech is
(11:24):
you know music. It's it's it's so funny because I
went through some hard time to music. Let's just put
it that way. And yeah, and what I learned about
music is music is subjective. You don't have to like Jawu,
you don't have to like you know, whatever artist you
(11:48):
It's just you don't have to like these people. And
crazy thing is that people are so fickle. They'll like
you one day and they won't like you the next.
So it's absolutely and and with music, you have to
have people to like you, I love you, or that
starts to affect your bottom line. What I learned to
tech is you're actually providing a service that others need
(12:11):
as well. And so if you're look, you know, if
you're mad at Mark Zuckerberg, you're not gonna stop using
Instagram or you're not gonna stop people. And it also
serves your purpose. And that's what I learned about tech,
you know. And so I wanted to put my eggs
in a basket that wasn't so subjective, and that if
(12:35):
if if I provide a service for people that also
serves them, and they're able to use it and it
works for them, it's beneficial for them, then it wouldn't
matter so much if you didn't love me as a person.
Even everybody do ship to you, you know, that's just
the way it works. And and and music, so but
it doesn't work so much like that in business. And
(12:56):
so I wanted to jump into the tech space for
for for reason, and and and and then I get
to be very creative and create and be joul in
a in a space where people are accepting of me
being me, you know. So it's it's really cool. You
know this is true, And I think that's what's so
beautiful about the tech industry. You hit it right on
the nose. You're allowed to create something add value and
(13:17):
then people almost can't live without it. You know. The
trends can go up and down, but you say, like,
we'll beholding to our social media, we'll beholding to different apps.
So you recently launched, well, I guess it was a
little bit of time ago, the Icon app. Yeah, let's
talk about that and then we're gonna go down my
favorite rabbit hole of n f T s, but talk
about building your first app and um, what that experience
(13:39):
was like? Oh, it was crazy. I built Icon during
the pandemic and I just seen a need for for
artists to take control of their content. And I lean
more towards the web three side when it comes to
(13:59):
in an ovation because I'm an artist, so obviously you know,
I'm I'm I'm all about ownership, you know, for for
for artists and content creators. So that's what Icon was
built on. It was built on the guys of you know,
we're stuck in this moment in time right now, everybody's
in the house, and I was seeing you know, DJ's
(14:22):
like D and d Nice getting on and and creating
that dope. Yeah, and and there was no way to
tip d Nice, There was no way to to thank
d Nice for his contributions and and and just getting
us through through a rough time and everyone's lives. And
I was, I thought that was so dope, And so
(14:43):
I created Icon to do these things. You know, when
you go on Icon, you can charge for a live,
you can you know, get tips during your lives, you
can do pay per view lives, you can uh, you know,
do meet and greet. You know, you can do if
you do a concert or whatever. You know, your fans
can book you and and you know talk to you
live for two or three minutes four feet or they
(15:05):
can straight out book you for a show you know,
you know, buy it. And so you know, Icon was built,
you know, basically with with constant creators in heart, in mind,
and how we can monetize our content a better way.
And I love this because I think, you know, oftentimes
people ask me all the time. They'll be like, oh,
your backgrounds and nursing and now you're in tech. How
(15:26):
did you make the jump? Like it's this big jump
that you know, there's this gateway to it, but you
just do it. You make the leap. You learn things
along the way. It's trial and error. Every day something
is working, not working, but you just read it. Yeah,
you just like you said, you gotta make the jump.
You've got to do it. It's it's like with people
who always ask me about n f T s all
(15:47):
the time, and they're like, job, you know, I don't
understand this in n f T stuff. You know, Explain
it to me, Explain it to me. And I'm like,
I can explain it to you till I'm blue in
the face. But you just gotta get in it. Got
to really understand it, you know, because explaining it to
people it's it's hard. It's hard. It's very hard. Yeah,
And so once you get into it, then you understand.
(16:10):
You know, it's about community, it's about you know, building
and and and not so much about you know, these
little PfP pictures that people are just looking at as
JPEGs it. That isn't a part of it. But it's
it's it's more to it than that. And I think
once you get in it, you understand, And I think
that aligns perfectly what you were saying before about icon
have like Web three, the metaverse, and this sort of
(16:33):
this world is really about helping people monetize and have
ownership over their own content, their own creativity. And so
I really believe there's a place for every one in
the Web three world. And part of why I'm really
excited to have you on the podcast today is and
let me just caveat this, um John Rule and I
are in this sort of elite group called Jpeg Morgan,
which is sort of where we got connected that are like, yeah,
(16:55):
having um n f T collectors. We share alpha uh,
and it's kind of like a whole bunch of people
who are drinking the same n f T kool aid.
Like it becomes an obsession. So to your point, like
once you get in and you dive in, I haven't
met people who are like I don't get it. I'm
I'm staying away. But if you take the time to
really learn about the industry, like you'll fall in love
(17:17):
with it just like so many people. And also why
I'm excited to have you on here is because I
truly believe for not just creators and creative people, but
for people of color. I want everyone to start dipping
their toe into this Web three world, into n f
T s because I just think there's so much potential there.
(17:37):
There's a technology renaissance that we were not necessarily sitting
at the table of for Web two, for the Facebook creators, etcetera.
So having you here talking about I launched my own
n f T collection, I think is really inspiring to
so many people. You know, it's so crazy that you
say that because I recently did something that you know,
(17:57):
I'm really really proud of, because, like you said, it's
a lot of people of color in the space. You know.
I was just at the Southern bees Um auction last night.
Auction last night which you got pulled, dude. They were
called it the real life drug. I can't believe it.
I was watching see this is what I mean when
you get into the space. I was on what I
was in the airport, like literally watching on a plane
(18:19):
about an auction for a bundle of n f T
s like and I think, like the energy in this
space is so addictive, but it also has the capacity
to change the lives and create wealth for so many
people because we're all so early, so anyone tells that
you're not. Last night it was dope, you know, it
just it just had a good vibe to it. Even
(18:40):
though it didn't it didn't happen, it had a great
vibe to it. But you know, it was funny because
there was a group of us. Ralph McDaniels was day.
He's doing something some cool stuff with with Southern bes
and and the history of hip hop and then that
kind of thing, really really cool. But you see all
of these people starting to get involved. But it was
(19:00):
a small corner of us, and it was, you know,
like four black people in the in this little area.
And then it's other as other sister comes over and
she said, I just had this. She said, I was
peaking looking and I seen y'all from across the room
and I had to just come over and say hi
because and she felt the same thing. It's not a
lot of us in the spaces like we're happy to
(19:21):
see each other when we're in the space, because you know,
for black people it's like, damn, man, we always lasted
the money. And I don't, I don't. I don't want
that to be the scenario here. And so you know,
met me and my me and my brother heard man.
I wanted to start something dope for for the you know,
people of color. So I started a brotherhood down it's yeah,
(19:45):
and it's really cool. It's it's for you know, meet
me and a few of my friends that wanted to
you know, they wanted to learn about n f t S.
They wanted to get into the space, but they don't
really know much. So I created this, We created this
doubt for them to grow with us, learning with us
as you like said, we're all still so new, you know,
so we're all learning together. And I said, this is
a great time for us to create this. Will will
(20:07):
buy some stuff together, will make some money together as
a crew. And it's now it's but it's growing and
it's growing. And so the next thing that I wanted
to do is I'm not I'm not. If you're familiar
with the house at first, yes, oh yeah, I've got
a couple of their remarkable women and every everyone's um
so I'm an advisor ambassador over there. So I called
(20:30):
Zeve Zeve. I got an amazing idea. I said, I
want to create, you know, a subsidiary under the umbrella,
and I want to call mine in the Painted House.
And I want to get and and pull in more
artists of color. And do you know, PfP projects will
create curate the whole thing for them. They just got
to do the art, you know. And and and you know,
(20:51):
hopefully they'll make lots of money off these projects, and
we'll bring a lot more wealth into the black into
the black community. And and you know, Zev loved. He's
a great, you know guy, he's a he's really you know,
an ambassador when it comes to to seeing people of
color win in this space. And so you know, he
(21:11):
loved the idea. And so now we're creating that, we're
creating the Painted House and I have, um about three
or four really cool uh black artist African artist female
yeah that are that are gonna be doing projects under
the Painted House umbrella and under the House for Us umbrella.
And it's it's just a good time, man, And I
(21:33):
feel great, great time, so much energy, there's so much opportunity.
And I better get white list spots for all of
those projects. Uh, first to minute, first first on the list.
You know that rolla thank you so much for your
time today. Ums. So many of us I don't know
(21:55):
if you have twenty four hours in a day like
the rest of us, but it seems like you do
a whole lot more. Um, it's pretty incredible. Try I try.
I get up at five in the morning to get started.
So yeah, I believe it. I believe it. Um. Can
you tell our Money Moves audience where they can find
you on social media? Make sure you point us also
to the icon apps so that they can tune into
(22:16):
this dance party this weekend. Yes, yes, Um, you can
find me on all my socials at ja rule on
Instagram and on Twitter those only socials an't really had,
and on icon I'm at job Rule as well. So
make sure you'll love the Icon app in the Apple Yeah,
you can get the icon Live app in the Apple
(22:36):
Apple Store. Um, we're not in Android yet, but we're
building it will be there soon. Um it's Icon with
two ends live, so Icon with mans live. Well, thank
you so much. Thank you for being uh you know,
a creative genius and a tech genius. I love it. Man,
You've got the great energy. Is this was fun? So yeah?
(22:59):
Great and money Movers that's all the time. I'm telling you.
Seeing you guys like these are the people who are
really like changing the face of well to how we
build it, how we go after it, and like podcasts
like this really help folks like this ain't a game,
you know, you say you wake up at five o'clock
(23:21):
in the morning. You know you've been grinding for years
like it's it's a it's a marathon, not a sprint.
All right, Money Movers, that's all the time we have
for today. But make sure to follow job Rule on
all his social media handles. And if we help you
make your money move, please make sure to let us
know by sending us alike. Thank you so much for
tuning in Money Moves audience. If you want more or
(23:42):
a recap of this episode, please go to the bank
Greenwood dot com and check out the Money Moves podcast blog.
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Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Today's guest is a rapper, actor, celebrity,
(00:20):
and serial entrepreneur. He has been nominated for two American
Music Awards and four Grammys. He's a platinum selling rap
artist with picks that I know. You know, we all
still damping like Halla, Halla, living it up. Put it
on me, Um, I won't sing for you guys, and
that's always on time. So let's get started. Money Movers,
please welcome the icon himself, job Rule. Hi, Welcome to
(00:44):
the podcast. We are so excited to have you on
the podcast today. Your story, your trajectory through music, entertainment, entrepreneurship,
it it is so inspiring and I'm just really excited
to have our Money Moves audience privilege, the privilege of
(01:06):
having you here today. Um, privilege is all my thanks
for having me. So I want to get started because
I think a lot of our audience knows you, of
course for your multiple you know, platinum records and hit
selling hits, but also you've been a long time entrepreneur.
So I want to take us back to the early
days of your music career and get sort of your
(01:26):
perspective on what it was like making money and building wealth.
Did you have a goal in mind, um, and sort
of what your thoughts were in the early days. No,
no goal at all. I was winning it. I'm not
gonna lie, Yeah I was. I was really young when
I started making money. And you know, being thrust into
(01:48):
the financial world, you know, with no properly you know,
training or education or anything like that, it's very scary,
you know, and and it's and so I struggled with
a lot, you know in the beginning. You know, I
didn't I didn't know how to do anything but spend
(02:09):
the money and that that comes very easy and very matter. Yeah,
so you know, um, I had to learn some hard
lessons too, alone the way, you know, And and that's fine.
You know, when you're twenty years old and you make
you know, your first millions of dollars, you you can
(02:29):
you shot to take care of those who don't have
you know, your family, your you know, your your parents
and your grandparents and cousins and you and everybody, and
so you know, you learn those lessons young and early,
which was I guess that was a blessing in disguise
to be able to learn those lessons that early, that young,
you know, but then you know, I learned, I learned
(02:51):
that in order to be successful in finance, you have
to have multiple revelue streams. And that that's what I
learned really really early too. And and God blessed that
because you know, as as black people in our community,
we always talk about saving money. You know, save money,
(03:11):
save your money, save your money, that's the mom absolutely yeah.
But but what I learned is, you know, even when
you save your money, you know, if you don't have
enough money or a lot of money, you can't really
live off your interests unless you're really really rich, wealthy
for that for that matter. And so you you start
(03:31):
to learn that you need to invest your money. If
you just save your money, eventually inflation and you know,
things that that makes you will catch up to you.
And so where did you start learning these because I
think oftentimes in our community you sort of touched on
this a little bit. You know, we're not taught these
lessons from our parents. And I know, for example, you
grew up in a in a household that was faith
(03:54):
faith based in Jehovah's witness was this taught in your
household save your money, um or like, who were the
real key people that helped you to learn these lessons
along the way. Well, my mom didn't have no money,
so she she she didn't have the tools to really
teach me. She you know, she worked very hard and
(04:14):
you know too, three jobs whatever. She could keep food
on the table, keep roofull of my head, you know,
clothes on my back, that sort of thing. But my
grandparents were very um intricate, you know, very very influential. Um.
My grandfather especially, he was just a hard work that
he he just knew how to provide whatever, whatever it took.
(04:36):
You know, whether he worked five six jobs, it didn't matter.
You know. His thing was just work hard and you know, provide.
So I learned how to work hard, you know, I
learned a great work ethic for my grandfather that anything
you want to have in life or any work, you
(04:58):
gotta work hard for. Yeah. But then it came a
time where I started to also realize that, you know,
you have to work smarter and not harder. And I'm
not gonna always be in a position to work as
hard for my money. You know as you get older,
in aids and stuff like that. So investments started to
be something that I looked at and started to learn
(05:19):
that if you invest your money, it can actually turn
you a return. And and you know in a different way.
You know, not in three percent five percent, you know,
one percent, zero, zero point two percent interests like they
do at the bank, but you know in in in
(05:41):
the in the sense of maybe ten xt in your
money or twenty xting you, or in the text space
a hundred next in your money. So those those were
the things that I started to learn and and I
wanted to learn more. And so I was a high
school dropout. And so um, when I when I went
away for a little while, my little vacation there, I uh,
(06:07):
I got my g D. Like it was a sabbatical.
It was abbatical. Yes, So my little sabbatical, I got
my g D. I I thought that was very important
for me to do that, and in order for me
to see higher education, I needed that as well. So
when I came home, I, um, I also took the
Harvard Business online Business. Yeah, I I also completed that
(06:34):
and and that was, you know, important to me. And
I'm in the process of taking some more courses with
all right now, but you know those those things were
important to me, not only for myself but for my kids.
I preach education to my children, and it's kind of
hypocritical if you don't have an education. No, you didn't
go to school. Yeah, but I think it's like generationally,
we just try to do better, right, We looked back
(06:55):
at our grandparents, our parents, and we just try to
do better. But I like that you're putting your money
where your mouth is because I know kids today we'll
call you on it. Yeah, absolutely will. So so I
went in that for me and from my kids, so
I can you know, actually you know, talk that talk
to them and and really mean it and be an
example of it. So let's get into this idea where
(07:16):
you were talking about, you know, multiple streams of income,
making your money work for yourselves, and you mentioned technology.
So before you sort of got into tech, what were
some of the other areas that were interesting you interesting
you um in terms of investing or um starting businesses
and oh you know, um. First, you know, we got
(07:37):
into the normal things that hip hop kind of gravitating
towards after you know, making the music thin and stuff.
You know, we gotta clothing and yeah, yeah, liquor stuff.
So we have my first adventure into business kind of
uh with investment was was my clothing line. Irvan Jeffrey
(08:00):
and me and I went into this business not knowing
anything about the clothing business. This is a great lasson
for us too because, uh so, a lot of those
deals that you've seen early on, like you know those
those Seawan John deal, Rockaway deals, you know those type
of deals, they were all like really like eight percent
(08:21):
ten percent deals that they did, they didn't you know,
they didn't assume any of the risk. Then you know,
the companies took all the risk and put up all
the money and basically they just had to promote you know,
the thing for their for their you know eight percent,
and they were making a lot of money doing But
me and Yady were like, well, why should we take
(08:43):
eight percent of it when we can have more of it?
It sounds good. What what we didn't understand about the
clothing businesses the how do you get as a clothe
the line. The more money you have to spend, you
put the clothes in more doors, and so you actually
(09:07):
need some financeers, some type of you know, uh financial backing,
you know, you know, something to to actually expirehead just
because you'll find your stuff going broke with a successful company. Yeah,
and people don't understand this about scaling a business. Yeah,
this part we had to learn the hard way. So, um,
(09:29):
we owned a hundred percent of a company that was
starting to take off. What was drained in our pockets deeply,
and we were taking money from here to put here
and that's never the way you kind of want to
do business. You know this, the actual business wasn't actually
turning a profit for us, even though we was having success,
and so we were taking money from music and putting
(09:51):
it into the clothes and that's just not the way
you do things. In a long story short, we ended
up breaking even on the business because we so to
Samsung and got our money back basically because it was
it was becoming a new for us. But but that
was a learning thing. That was a learning process for us.
You know, sometimes taking a percentage of something no, I
(10:17):
love you that is more than happening of something that
is draining. So you know, these are things you learned
along the way. We had to learn that the hard way.
But you know, I wouldn't have it any other way,
because that that when you learned them that way, you
really learned the lesson and you go forward, you know,
so fast forward. Now you've got multiple different business interests
(10:40):
and you've dived into this technology startups and investing in
tech companies. You've launched several of your own. That is
really great. What got you excited about the text text
technology and startups? Well, the thing that got me really
interested in tech. First of all, it's a space where
I can be very creative. I'm I'm a very creative person,
(11:03):
you know. Um, I'm an artist, artist, you know, and
tech allows me to be an artist still and in
many in many ways. And for me that that was exciting.
But the most exciting things and the thing that has
really really that I really really love about tech is
(11:24):
you know music. It's it's it's so funny because I
went through some hard time to music. Let's just put
it that way. And yeah, and what I learned about
music is music is subjective. You don't have to like Jawu,
you don't have to like you know, whatever artist you
(11:48):
It's just you don't have to like these people. And
crazy thing is that people are so fickle. They'll like
you one day and they won't like you the next.
So it's absolutely and and with music, you have to
have people to like you, I love you, or that
starts to affect your bottom line. What I learned to
tech is you're actually providing a service that others need
(12:11):
as well. And so if you're look, you know, if
you're mad at Mark Zuckerberg, you're not gonna stop using
Instagram or you're not gonna stop people. And it also
serves your purpose. And that's what I learned about tech,
you know. And so I wanted to put my eggs
in a basket that wasn't so subjective, and that if
(12:35):
if if I provide a service for people that also
serves them, and they're able to use it and it
works for them, it's beneficial for them, then it wouldn't
matter so much if you didn't love me as a person.
Even everybody do ship to you, you know, that's just
the way it works. And and and music, so but
it doesn't work so much like that in business. And
(12:56):
so I wanted to jump into the tech space for
for for reason, and and and and then I get
to be very creative and create and be joul in
a in a space where people are accepting of me
being me, you know. So it's it's really cool. You
know this is true, And I think that's what's so
beautiful about the tech industry. You hit it right on
the nose. You're allowed to create something add value and
(13:17):
then people almost can't live without it. You know. The
trends can go up and down, but you say, like,
we'll beholding to our social media, we'll beholding to different apps.
So you recently launched, well, I guess it was a
little bit of time ago, the Icon app. Yeah, let's
talk about that and then we're gonna go down my
favorite rabbit hole of n f T s, but talk
about building your first app and um, what that experience
(13:39):
was like? Oh, it was crazy. I built Icon during
the pandemic and I just seen a need for for
artists to take control of their content. And I lean
more towards the web three side when it comes to
(13:59):
in an ovation because I'm an artist, so obviously you know,
I'm I'm I'm all about ownership, you know, for for
for artists and content creators. So that's what Icon was
built on. It was built on the guys of you know,
we're stuck in this moment in time right now, everybody's
in the house, and I was seeing you know, DJ's
(14:22):
like D and d Nice getting on and and creating
that dope. Yeah, and and there was no way to
tip d Nice, There was no way to to thank
d Nice for his contributions and and and just getting
us through through a rough time and everyone's lives. And
I was, I thought that was so dope, And so
(14:43):
I created Icon to do these things. You know, when
you go on Icon, you can charge for a live,
you can you know, get tips during your lives, you
can do pay per view lives, you can uh, you know,
do meet and greet. You know, you can do if
you do a concert or whatever. You know, your fans
can book you and and you know talk to you
live for two or three minutes four feet or they
(15:05):
can straight out book you for a show you know,
you know, buy it. And so you know, Icon was built,
you know, basically with with constant creators in heart, in mind,
and how we can monetize our content a better way.
And I love this because I think, you know, oftentimes
people ask me all the time. They'll be like, oh,
your backgrounds and nursing and now you're in tech. How
(15:26):
did you make the jump? Like it's this big jump
that you know, there's this gateway to it, but you
just do it. You make the leap. You learn things
along the way. It's trial and error. Every day something
is working, not working, but you just read it. Yeah,
you just like you said, you gotta make the jump.
You've got to do it. It's it's like with people
who always ask me about n f T s all
(15:47):
the time, and they're like, job, you know, I don't
understand this in n f T stuff. You know, Explain
it to me, Explain it to me. And I'm like,
I can explain it to you till I'm blue in
the face. But you just gotta get in it. Got
to really understand it, you know, because explaining it to
people it's it's hard. It's hard. It's very hard. Yeah,
And so once you get into it, then you understand.
(16:10):
You know, it's about community, it's about you know, building
and and and not so much about you know, these
little PfP pictures that people are just looking at as
JPEGs it. That isn't a part of it. But it's
it's it's more to it than that. And I think
once you get in it, you understand, And I think
that aligns perfectly what you were saying before about icon
have like Web three, the metaverse, and this sort of
(16:33):
this world is really about helping people monetize and have
ownership over their own content, their own creativity. And so
I really believe there's a place for every one in
the Web three world. And part of why I'm really
excited to have you on the podcast today is and
let me just caveat this, um John Rule and I
are in this sort of elite group called Jpeg Morgan,
which is sort of where we got connected that are like, yeah,
(16:55):
having um n f T collectors. We share alpha uh,
and it's kind of like a whole bunch of people
who are drinking the same n f T kool aid.
Like it becomes an obsession. So to your point, like
once you get in and you dive in, I haven't
met people who are like I don't get it. I'm
I'm staying away. But if you take the time to
really learn about the industry, like you'll fall in love
(17:17):
with it just like so many people. And also why
I'm excited to have you on here is because I
truly believe for not just creators and creative people, but
for people of color. I want everyone to start dipping
their toe into this Web three world, into n f
T s because I just think there's so much potential there.
(17:37):
There's a technology renaissance that we were not necessarily sitting
at the table of for Web two, for the Facebook creators, etcetera.
So having you here talking about I launched my own
n f T collection, I think is really inspiring to
so many people. You know, it's so crazy that you
say that because I recently did something that you know,
(17:57):
I'm really really proud of, because, like you said, it's
a lot of people of color in the space. You know.
I was just at the Southern bees Um auction last night.
Auction last night which you got pulled, dude. They were
called it the real life drug. I can't believe it.
I was watching see this is what I mean when
you get into the space. I was on what I
was in the airport, like literally watching on a plane
(18:19):
about an auction for a bundle of n f T
s like and I think, like the energy in this
space is so addictive, but it also has the capacity
to change the lives and create wealth for so many
people because we're all so early, so anyone tells that
you're not. Last night it was dope, you know, it
just it just had a good vibe to it. Even
(18:40):
though it didn't it didn't happen, it had a great
vibe to it. But you know, it was funny because
there was a group of us. Ralph McDaniels was day.
He's doing something some cool stuff with with Southern bes
and and the history of hip hop and then that
kind of thing, really really cool. But you see all
of these people starting to get involved. But it was
(19:00):
a small corner of us, and it was, you know,
like four black people in the in this little area.
And then it's other as other sister comes over and
she said, I just had this. She said, I was
peaking looking and I seen y'all from across the room
and I had to just come over and say hi
because and she felt the same thing. It's not a
lot of us in the spaces like we're happy to
(19:21):
see each other when we're in the space, because you know,
for black people it's like, damn, man, we always lasted
the money. And I don't, I don't. I don't want
that to be the scenario here. And so you know,
met me and my me and my brother heard man.
I wanted to start something dope for for the you know,
people of color. So I started a brotherhood down it's yeah,
(19:45):
and it's really cool. It's it's for you know, meet
me and a few of my friends that wanted to
you know, they wanted to learn about n f t S.
They wanted to get into the space, but they don't
really know much. So I created this, We created this
doubt for them to grow with us, learning with us
as you like said, we're all still so new, you know,
so we're all learning together. And I said, this is
a great time for us to create this. Will will
(20:07):
buy some stuff together, will make some money together as
a crew. And it's now it's but it's growing and
it's growing. And so the next thing that I wanted
to do is I'm not I'm not. If you're familiar
with the house at first, yes, oh yeah, I've got
a couple of their remarkable women and every everyone's um
so I'm an advisor ambassador over there. So I called
(20:30):
Zeve Zeve. I got an amazing idea. I said, I
want to create, you know, a subsidiary under the umbrella,
and I want to call mine in the Painted House.
And I want to get and and pull in more
artists of color. And do you know, PfP projects will
create curate the whole thing for them. They just got
to do the art, you know. And and and you know,
(20:51):
hopefully they'll make lots of money off these projects, and
we'll bring a lot more wealth into the black into
the black community. And and you know, Zev loved. He's
a great, you know guy, he's a he's really you know,
an ambassador when it comes to to seeing people of
color win in this space. And so you know, he
(21:11):
loved the idea. And so now we're creating that, we're
creating the Painted House and I have, um about three
or four really cool uh black artist African artist female
yeah that are that are gonna be doing projects under
the Painted House umbrella and under the House for Us umbrella.
And it's it's just a good time, man, And I
(21:33):
feel great, great time, so much energy, there's so much opportunity.
And I better get white list spots for all of
those projects. Uh, first to minute, first first on the list.
You know that rolla thank you so much for your
time today. Ums. So many of us I don't know
(21:55):
if you have twenty four hours in a day like
the rest of us, but it seems like you do
a whole lot more. Um, it's pretty incredible. Try I try.
I get up at five in the morning to get started.
So yeah, I believe it. I believe it. Um. Can
you tell our Money Moves audience where they can find
you on social media? Make sure you point us also
to the icon apps so that they can tune into
(22:16):
this dance party this weekend. Yes, yes, Um, you can
find me on all my socials at ja rule on
Instagram and on Twitter those only socials an't really had,
and on icon I'm at job Rule as well. So
make sure you'll love the Icon app in the Apple Yeah,
you can get the icon Live app in the Apple
(22:36):
Apple Store. Um, we're not in Android yet, but we're
building it will be there soon. Um it's Icon with
two ends live, so Icon with mans live. Well, thank
you so much. Thank you for being uh you know,
a creative genius and a tech genius. I love it. Man,
You've got the great energy. Is this was fun? So yeah?
(22:59):
Great and money Movers that's all the time. I'm telling you.
Seeing you guys like these are the people who are
really like changing the face of well to how we
build it, how we go after it, and like podcasts
like this really help folks like this ain't a game,
you know, you say you wake up at five o'clock
(23:21):
in the morning. You know you've been grinding for years
like it's it's a it's a marathon, not a sprint.
All right, Money Movers, that's all the time we have
for today. But make sure to follow job Rule on
all his social media handles. And if we help you
make your money move, please make sure to let us
know by sending us alike. Thank you so much for
tuning in Money Moves audience. If you want more or
(23:42):
a recap of this episode, please go to the bank
Greenwood dot com and check out the Money Moves podcast blog.
Money Moves is an I Heart Radio podcast powered by
Greenwoods Executive produced by sun Wise Media, Inc. For more
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