July 14, 2026 • 56 mins
Drink Champs Network Presents: ROC Solid with Memphis Bleek.
This week on ROC Solid, we take it international with a special live episode recorded at the legendary Château de Cognac in France. Hosted by Memphis Bleek, this unforgettable conversation brings together Sullivan Doh, Thomas Puzo, and Cheech for an inside look at the rich history, craftsmanship, and cultural impact of one of the world's most iconic spirits.
Filmed inside the historic château where generations of cognac have been produced, the guests take Bleek behind the scenes to explore the centuries-old traditions that have made French cognac synonymous with luxury and celebration. From the meticulous distillation process to aging in oak barrels, they break down what separates exceptional cognac from the rest while sharing stories about the brand's global influence and its deep connection to hip-hop culture.
The conversation also touches on entrepreneurship, preserving heritage, and how authenticity continues to shape both the spirits industry and the music business. With breathtaking surroundings, exclusive access, and plenty of laughs along the way, this episode delivers a unique blend of education, culture, and entertainment.
Whether you're a longtime cognac enthusiast, a fan of hip-hop, or simply enjoy hearing inspiring stories from industry leaders, this special international edition of ROC Solid is an experience you won't want to miss.
Tap in - history’s being told by the ones who lived it.
Stay Solid. ROC Solid. 💎 💯
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:13):
Yeah, you know what it is exclusive episode of rock
Solid podcast Yours Truly Memphis Bleak Live from Koyak, France.
Man told me Koyak and this is brought to you
by Advanced Productions. My guys holding me down, but let's
toast to my partner who's oh in the building aka
(00:36):
Tommy Vegan. Sir, when you see the sign that means
the Mafias and the magi feak here man something my.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Guy, Man nothing, man, just honor to be here, yo, dude,
on this journey back again.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
We was just hand September.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Right during the super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
We was here September during the super Bowl. We didn't
make it to New Orleans. And it's crazy that all
of Flower was everything was dead.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
It was cold.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
We was running around, but we had to come to
the chateau. But why I got my guy, Tommy ve
Gan on with me right now because he's a very
very important person when it comes to this brand. Do say,
because when we first launched the brand, who got the
call pools?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Nah? Yeah, we started this. Like I said, it was
the opportunity of a lifetime. What year was it actually
twenty twelve?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I want to say, yeah, it was twelve years ago,
so yeah, twenty fourteen.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
And you had run up to the office to talk
to Jay, and like the rest was history. I think
from there you said I needed the opportunity to work
and do something different. The music. The music thing was
was in and out, like you weren't really into it time.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
No, no, no, keep it clean till that shit was dried up.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Like we could say that, say that part the.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Music was dried. It wasn't checking for bleak.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
But I was just in the right place at the
right time. I had. I had driven you to the office.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
That day, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
And then you came out with the bottle, if I
believe I'm correct, right, and you said we need to
start making some moves.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yo, And then it's crazy. Let me tell y'all that's
real scenario. So I called Jay. I tell him, hey, yo, Jay,
the music ain't going down. I need something else, man,
I want to I want to try something outside of
being an artist.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
And he was like, Yo, you ready to work.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Man.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
You can't be showing up to the meet and smelling
like weed bleak. You can't be sleep at the meetings.
Wilding out. So I'm like, nah, man, this ain't bleak.
This is Malik. I really really need a shot. Bro
give me something. So he like, all right, I got
something for you. Come to the office. You show me
the bottle, we take a shot. He like, bleak, you did.
You can move this, and I'm like, of course. Now,
(02:42):
Pools was downstairs because at this time the office was
just built. And remember they didn't have the parking.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Lanes they started just started.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
The Pools was holding it down so we didn't get
a two hundred and twenty five dollar ticket. That's how
they bang you in New York two twenty five or
one twenty five, one of those. So Jay gave me
the bottle. I'm like, yo, you know me, I'm a hustler.
I used to sell fireworks, crack whatever. I could move this.
So he like, show me what you could do. I
go downstairs to the car. I show Pools or the bottle.
(03:10):
I'm like, yo, Pools. Hope said, if we could move
this and turn this up, we could take over. Pool said,
I got you bleak.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah from there. I mean it's like the wheels turned.
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
I'm not even gonna take the credit because all I
did was steal the deal. But Pool said, y'a, I'm
gonna make one call to my man, my tale you
t town.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
So now mind you, I didn't know who he was.
Tell him who your tale was a tale?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
He well, he's just a guy uptown, if you know.
You know, he ran all the cabs services on Marina,
which was the biggest club at the time. Like Marina
was wasn't even a Marina.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
It was just it was just it was just the
West Side was just building it, right, they were just
opening it.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
He was he was getting ready to launch, you know,
at the right time. So we had brought the.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Bay to him.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, so Pools off the rip called me bleek. My
man uptown got a new club, Colllin Marina. He want
to buy a hundred cases. You gotta come here. You
gotta meet me up here right now. So I'm like,
all right, let's shoot up there. I get to the meeting.
It's the representative for the NYC Taxi Cab Commission. It's
(04:17):
like anything ever happened in NYC with it with a taxi.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
He was on the new guy. But I don't know Spanish,
so you know, that's where he was, and he was
going hard representing for.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
The Dominicans, anybody, any immigrant, Mexican, Dominican, any Latin descent.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
He was representing.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
So to see him at the meeting was like booso
for dull.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
You know, the cab.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Dude, the taxi dude shout and yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
And he wanted to buy a Hondrey cases. His whole
thing was Yo. I'm like, Yo, you buy a Hundrey cases.
I guarantee j gonna pull up. I remember at this time,
I'm like, yo, you gotta have the boat doc built
because Jay want to come in on the yacht.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
He said, what was it gonna take to get Jay here?
And then we said in.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
The boat the cases, the hondred cases in the boat
dove right. We never got the boat dock, but we
got the honey cases moving. And you know what's so
iconic about the honey cases because when they first started
to do, say, there wasn't no salary, there wasn't no Yo,
you're gonna make this much a marsh You're gonna do nothing.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
It was commission.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
It was like, yo, for every case you moved, bleak,
we're gonna give you fifty dollars off for case. So
mind you who's with I went crazy, honey off. So
then I called my bro uncle b I Brooklyn liquor store.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
We've been going to.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
The whole life Brooklyn.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
You know what I mean. Shout out my dog Mic
over there.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
You know what I mean, murder Ave got the liquor
store boom in our whole life, go talk the mic.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Mike bought a honey Then I called my dog Fred.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
C out Vegas expansion.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
The poems could seine off went on the lits. I
got a call to the office. You know what they said, bleak,
we can no longer give you commission.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
You bleed us drive. We're gonna give you a salary
and we're gonna hold you there, continue doing your thing.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
You have to keep in mind that was twenty twelve,
so fast forward. Here we're in twenty twenty six, and
to be here at the Chateau is it's something that
you can't even describe.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
But I just wanted to bring him through the journey,
like back in the day to begin members like I
don't like bringing up other brands, and I'm not gonna
name other brands.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
But it was difficult to get Duce poppermember.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
It was another brand out there, paying bars clubs and
restaurants right not.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
To put us on the shelf.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
So we had to deal with all of that, you
know what I'm saying, and think about it. We even
had haters on our team. I even had ambassadors that
would find out I got a certain account member.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
We got love and lesson Brooklyn, lot of jealousy YO had.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
It was another Duce ambassador who went to the cloud
and told the promoter, Yo, don't deal with Bleak.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
He's a rapper man. You want to buy it?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Didn't take you serious as an entrepreneur yet.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Yeah, pools man, the rat has been crazy, right, how
much do say you that had in your trunk?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
God, it was it was like selling out of my trunk,
like bootlegging, you know what I mean. At that time,
twenty twelve, it wasn't distributed yet, so we had bottles
coming from here Cognac. And then when you get to
you know, I highly recommend if you get to come
out here and come on a tour and just experience
this entire. Yeah, this entire. The way that it's made,
(07:34):
the way that everything is done here is unique and
that's what makes it special. So I don't think is
really in competition with anybody else. Because of the history
of the of the castle and the way that everything
is done here. It's just different. It's a history, you know,
it's a history lesson, it really is, and I'm a
nerd for that. So, like I said, the energy just
when you come here, if you get a chance to
(07:55):
visit Chateau de Cognac, highly recommend the tour and the
people here. Everyone here is incredible, So shout out to
advanced productions and all the people that work at the museum.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Yo.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
But you're saying they like we about long golf.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I just got here to meet everybody. So I'm just
I'm still blown away by the whole.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Like Tommy Vegan is in his element, no I am,
He's in relaxed.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
I wish you would have saw Tommy Vegan in Paris.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
It's a certain kind of energy here. You know, it's
different than being in New Jersey and New York. You
know where we're from, so where we Yeah, it's a different,
different energy here.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
So it's just.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
We live right now. You know, Like just left Paris
and I did a couple of days there. I know
you had your daughter at Disney, you know, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
It's like a talking about yo, jay man.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
It's like it's like a workation for you though.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Yo, when they're gonna take their kids or they girl.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Out, listen, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Don't worry about what. Don't worry about the wrap side,
the family side.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
But just you know, like I said, I was out
here when I was younger, at twenty one, I didn't
get to really experience Paris and then running around, you know,
with you on tour everywhere. Being able to come back
here and experience it as an adult, it's a whole
different vibe, yo.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
But let's give him some history about you, man, like,
thank god everything is legal now.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Rest in peace to my bro Ralph. Ralph was my dog.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
If you seen round here video here the reason the
doors was up in the truck that gave me all
the whips. Lay stole my whips after my guy. But
he used to brag about this guy who had good
weed in Jersey. He used to be like, Yo, my bro, Poozo,
he got that fire bleak.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
You gotta meet him. So one day we ride bikes, you.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Know what I mean, going to Beer Mountain and he like, yo,
my boy lived right over here, bleek let's stop by
the crib.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
I'm like, all right, I need some wee. Let's pull up.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
The one time my god, Tommy Vegan actually had good weeds.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
That's how you're gonna You're gonna drop that to.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Day I met him, the pack was fire, me and
my man Saffee, shout out, Saffee. We just pulling up
to the crib by zips. I think you lost that connection.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Not at all. You're You're just you're a kinnoisseur. So
it's hard to keep a client like you happy all
the time, you know what I mean, Because you're you're
you have a different kind of uh you know, caste
bud for for the for the bud, you know. So
it's it's different. You're you're very hard to keep satisfied
in that department because I feel like you're traveling all
(10:31):
over the world, so you have the opportunity to smoke
on all kinds of exams.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Yeah, I recognized tra personally.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I'm only you recognized I go from howd I go
from such a great thing to such a track?
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Did you lose?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
What do you think I'm baiting and switching on you?
Speaker 3 (10:47):
I don't know. We don't connect we don't. But now
I'm the connect, like you see how life work. He
started out as my con that now I'm your connect.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Well there's an element of truth to that though, if
you think about it, because what you and I had
built with mine, right, I'm saying my right exotic, it
surpassed me because you guys actually started growing your own
So I never I never had I never really had
an opportunity. I was always trying to pay someone to
do it for me, you know what I mean. So
when you guys, I saw you building that part of
(11:18):
the business.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
This is the This is why we connect because you
know they used to say back in the days when
hydro and ship first came out.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Who had it? The white boys? Right? We know what
I did have me.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
You're right about that, but you you would know better
because you know it started in Holland, started in Amsterdam.
So you know those old growers, Jack Hira, Northern Lights,
all those old strands, they came from Holland. And then
what happened is they migrated over to California. And so
you know about that. You've been in Amsterdam how many
times in your life?
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Four million times?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Yea four million?
Speaker 3 (11:48):
And he's three million times.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
I've been to Kolnak twice, right right, so we gotta
add some more.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
We should talk about that too. So we were out
here during the Super Bowl toa we gotta bring that
one back, and then we got to take the tour here.
It was absolutely incredible. Once again, I can't stop talking
about it because of how incredible it is. That being said,
I said, how can I get bleak back here? Yo,
to you know, to do some kind of an event
or do something so low and behold Sullivan. Shout out
(12:19):
Sullivan put us on. There's a music festival in Kgnak
July second. So I said to myself, we gotta make
this happen because I don't think a hip hop artist,
let alone an artist, has ever performed at the Chateau Cognac.
So that being said is it's history being made here.
And then you know, we were able to make this happen.
(12:40):
So shout out Sullivan for having us and making this happen.
But the music festival I'm most excited to see because
last time we were here was cold. We didn't get
to really enjoy this.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
East Hampton right.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
The river, so that the drop is beauty here. So
I'm excited for that.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
I'm glad you're excited because you know you the hype man.
I know.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Listen, we we talked about this. I know pretty much
like ninety percent of your lyrics. So in my head,
I'm thinking to myself, maybe I could be an artist
one day.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
You could be the hype man tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
I got it. I got a team of people.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
We was rehearsing right on the back and we rehearse it.
My man was helping me because I forgot some of
the lyrics.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
But he's like, yo, I know.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
All the lyrics, so he helping me. That's not my
I was telling him he was one second, but that's.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Not I'm always going to because I'm a fan man.
At the end of the day, so I grew I
grew up listening to your music. Jah Ru, you know
all that coming up, so Nori like, I grew up
on all that music. So at the end of the day,
you know that that to me, I know every single
line of all those tracks you could play, but I
never performed, so I'll never be able to. People don't
(13:52):
realize That's one thing I've been on the road with
you forever. That's how difficult it is.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
What's your favorite trip with me? We've been every man.
Your favorite.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
There's a lot of them, bro, there's a lot of them.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
My favorite, I would. I'm gonna let you answer it.
What was your favorite trip for me?
Speaker 2 (14:08):
For me, it was a Ruba just because that was
right around the time you were about to get married,
and it wasn't really it wasn't really any work stuff involved.
Were able to just you know, chill out, see the island,
kind of vibe, relaxed, drink du st.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
You know, said man's Canada Toronto would superstar j.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I don't know who we were.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Vancouver, Toronto went with me.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
When we got to the border, I was with you.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Actually, as a matter of fact, you wouldn't have got
in the country if it wasn't for me, because what I.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Said, you went with me when we got to the border,
I was with you.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Won't get too specific specific because they don't want to
let me in.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
This is when we was illegal. So I used to
know no no bull right. I'm gonna tell y'all real
quick recap. I used to get locked up for we
every week in New Jersey.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
In my town.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
There was a captain who had I don't know, he
just didn't like me whenever he sing my car pull
that shit over.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
So I remember telling this copy I'm.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Not the average dude. I don't sell drugs in your community.
I'm just coming through and you just for some reason
he's pulling me over. I got no problem with y'all
out of that. Harassment, straight harassment. So I called my
lawyer and I told him. He says, the chief, the
chief not supposed to be fucking with you. So the
chief we win. My lawyer win sued them, did this
(15:37):
for harassment. He got fired. Long story short, here we
go going to Canada. All his charges fucked me up.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
They didn't want to let me in Canada and they said,
you got too many charges. Go home.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Let me take over from that part. So I'm at
the window and we're talking to the lady for immigration
and they're like, well, your friend is definitely not coming
into the country because he has, you know, fifty arrests
from marijuana and that's not happening. So I was, you know,
he's about to curse her out, and I was. I said,
(16:09):
please stand aside, let the Italian handle it.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
I gave it.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I had a little you know, I had a little
talk with the lady. I got her supervisor over. I said,
he's got to perform with J. I made up a
whole story. But I don't even think we're on toward
J and I just made up a whole I think
I made up a whole story that he has to
perform with Jay.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
I'm going to get fired with Superstars.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I made up a whole story, but a bunch of
bunch of stuff. But anyway, eventually they led us in
the country and I did, I pulled my finesse, you
know what I mean, And I made that happen. We
were with Superstar J too, and then we took the
whole tour. So we're in Toronto, I believe. Then we
went to Winnipeg. We did a couple of tracks Winnipeg
(16:48):
Shoutout Peace, Silvan and Winnipeg did a couple did a
couple of tracks in the snow trip. Because bring that
trip up to this day where he legendary legend.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I ain't know when you was taking that.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Yeah, I think it was five cities in six days.
I think it was.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
It was Winnipeg, Edmonton, a bunch of Yeah, the coldest
place you can ever go besides Finland, Finland too.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, No, Winnipeg is is a negative five, negative six,
you know, sub temperatures. But a lot of people don't
realize you're an exhausting person. Bro, since we're going to
break it down and get and get and get roll
with the like how that happened? What do you mean?
But going on tour with you is exhausting, So let
that be known. It's not a time like you think
you get to enjoy the cities and have a good
time with bleak, get up, we gotta go, get up,
(17:38):
we gotta go. It's non stop. So it's an exhausting process.
So since you want to go through it, people probably
get the wrong concept misconception of what it is in Toronto, relaxing,
hanging out, playing drake. There's none of that. You go
to bed, you sleep for three hours and your door
is getting kicked in. There's no grace period. So you know,
(17:59):
it's it's it's work. It's always worked.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
I don't think nobody always the work. We did. We
did five cities in one day.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
It was it was a yeah, it was like I said,
it was.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Just in New Jersey. Remember we just did five cities
in one day. Remember not even we did.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
But the Baltimore DMV joint.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
We did Brooklyn, Remember we started in Brooklyn, went to Manhattan,
shot two podcasts, drove the Delaware to meet somebody to
do a walk through at a grow, Drove the DC
to go test my right new product, drove back the
Delaware for another walkthrough of exactle, drove the New Jersey
(18:39):
shot another podcast, drove the New York, shot a video
with Smoke Dizzer, and then woke up at seven am
the next day to fly to another city.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
That again, this is how welage. The knowledge is different,
you know what I mean. But it started in cars.
Now now you're really up in the air now though,
So it's elevation man. But like I said, behind the scenes,
a lot of people don't realize the work that goes
into it to prepare to get to this point, you
know what I mean. So you know it's hours and
hours in the car, hours and hours on the phone,
(19:08):
hours and hours of non stop you know. So that
part I I salute you because if if it wasn't
for the hard work, we definitely wouldn't be here. So
and this position wasn't given to you either. Let's let
that be know, and I've been on the road with you.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Oh no, I had to earn it.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
It's it's you know, I'm on I'm on your show now.
But but to give you your flowers, that's so funny.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Jane thought I was gonna play with this, that I
wasn't gonna take dud Say serious.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
His whole thing was, I know you will show up
to me and you can't. They're gonna call me. You
can't gonna miss meetings.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
They're gonna call me. He said, I'm just waiting for it.
I went, so, man, it's my ship.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
You can't.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
You can't blame him because he's known you since you
were a kid. So's the same way you hire like
you gave. That's another thing. You gave a lot of
people positions and jobs and opportunity these and other things.
Not just do s. But the thing it opened up
my lane for me. I mean, I made I made
a huge you know, it was name for myself. Just
saw that lane. Yeah, it was Mafia. You know, that
(20:12):
was the original thing that.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
We made Yomember. Remember that. I remember telling Jay to
give us the budget to make.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
And he told me we had nobody ain't gonna wear
no liquor brand on their chest.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
And I was like, what right that Pmber.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
We went made the Duce Mafia hats. They made the
your shirt because he came back.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
It was the season Desist.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
He came back and season desist. Okay, you want to sell?
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Yeah right, yeah right.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
You want to sell, little bro. We started this whole movement.
That's why it's an honor to have you on this
with me.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
We'll not I appreciate that the chateau, Come on, Chateau.
I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Man.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
This castle was built in ten.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Thirty tenth century.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
It's almost century, thousand years ago.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
And then and then fast forward to Sullivan will beyond next.
I believe to give us a little bit of a break,
give your.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
History of the down everything you don't. We don't want
to give too much.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
But I want you to understand what this brand really mean,
because this brand is coming.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
To take over.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Not really is me but love.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
At first, we came to conquer the docs. We did that.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
All dogskin, niggas collide, all dogskin fan you and me
lock it.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
We did that. Now we're coming for the whites.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Anything you mix tequila, anything you mix vakaate you put
this in it, you change your life. Bet you never
had a duce pen of Colida, never had a duce Margarita,
never had a duceay sidecar, never had a Duceave.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
We just know we're not playing if I do say
so myself. All right, you already know what it is
yours truly Bleak. We back it Rock Solid Podcast Live
Chateaud the Kojak Man We out here Koyak, France. Welcome
my guy, my man Sullivan, the best ambassador, the brand ambassador,
(22:11):
the best mixologist.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
And one of my very very good friends. Man.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
You know I met you over a glass Duce and
we built a very very genuine, great relationship where we talk.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Next, we just gotta get our kids together because you're
in Florida. That's the next step.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
But last time you gonna know my guy. He definitely
popped up on us. At the Live Duce event Roots Picnic,
Sullivan was there. This time we get the real real
history of the brand. We here, Like I said, man,
we had Chateau, the Kognak and Kognak France and this
(22:49):
is all about Duce and what better way to get
the history and the history of the chateau, the history
of France and the purpose and importance of Conya from
none other then you, my brother.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Wow, that's the man doing that, isn't you know what
I'm saying? What's up, my brother? How you doing?
Speaker 5 (23:08):
You know?
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Man, it's good to see you again.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Man, you're the best dressed man. Like I gotta get
like you don't worry. Five more, ten more pounds, ten
more pounds. I'm going down like you know, like that.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
That's calling. That's pretty. I need to look as good
as the blood. You know what I'm saying. That's right,
you look good, my brother for shure. But yeah, we
have the shotters Kognak full of history. Man.
Speaker 6 (23:29):
I'm happy that you are back here because we're here
like four months ago. Yes, wintertime it was called it
was krgnac, and there.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Was no grapes on the tree. Was grapes on the
trees everywhere you go. Now it's grapes. I see why
they call it koyak. See, because like the green I
was starting right now.
Speaker 6 (23:46):
We're going to harvest them in September and then we're
gonna start making con living.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
What is kognak? You know, that's the thing like let's
get into it. Let's break it down. What is co
What is Karnak, my good friend, what is koyak? People
don't even know what they drink and they drink it,
they love it. They don't even know what it is.
So give them some science, give them some history to it.
How deep in this toy do we go? Let's go deep?
Speaker 1 (24:07):
They might say, pauls where I'm from. But ship women
love when you go deep. So that's gonna be for
the woman is Cognac. So we have to situate in
the space.
Speaker 6 (24:20):
Right now, we're in Cognac, friends, in the southwest part
of France strip about like four hundred kilometers of Paris.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
I don't know how much it is in miles, but
it's in the.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Listen and miles is about a good I say, probably
like five hundred and some change because it's what five
hours and forty five minutes by car.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yeah, so it's about six hundred miles almost.
Speaker 6 (24:39):
Now we don't drive as fast as you do, like
I feel that we'll be like two hundred like two fall.
But so in the south of France, like not far
from Bordo. This region was part of the Roman Empire
during the Third century and then notice I'm talking, we're
talking about history.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
To me, that's right injury.
Speaker 6 (24:59):
Then the so was really felt tired and they're like,
let's just have to grow grapes in the region. So
this became kind of a one region. First forward, we
go to the twelve thirteenth century. We had an issue
with the Marchland just up the coast of France, and
we didn't know how to clear the flooding. So we
called the Dutch that had some technique to help us
(25:21):
do that.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
So they came.
Speaker 6 (25:22):
They help us out there and they started to trade
the goods of the region out there, so we had
a good quality of salts. They started to the salts
because Dutch have been trading everything in the world.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
That that's what they did. They don't want smoking at bars.
They had all the men two ideas, let's go, we
got you you need help light out. One we got
the player, let's go.
Speaker 6 (25:42):
So I love that, and I guess they want a
bit high and they were like, oh, look there's this
beautiful river which is the sharonk River, and that river
goes all the way down to Connac. This is the
river that just passed down the Chatau right here, okay,
because all the way to so they took that river,
they came down and then they saw that we're making wine.
So they decided to trade this wine. So thirteenth century
(26:03):
the wine trade started in Europe, and so they took
the wine here, they break it back to Holland. But
by then we're not putting any sulfire, so anything to
keep the wine steady as we do today, like the
organic ones that were the frenky ones that were today,
that wasn't with the one that we're drinking back then.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
So by the time it got back to Horland, it wasn't.
Speaker 6 (26:22):
As good as it was the bright What a we're
gonna do with that much French wine. So they decided
to distill it. Because they were already making Geneva, which
is the grandfather of the gym, so they knew how
to distill. So they decided to distill this wine with
the idea that by distilling this wine, they'll get a
concentration of aromas that we give them kind of like
the sense of the wine, and then top it with
(26:44):
water and they would drink it like this to get
the wine back.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
It didn't work out this way.
Speaker 6 (26:49):
It just created a whole new flavor, a whole new
product that they were calling brand Winge, which means in
Dutch burnt wine because to distill they were burning the wine.
It was turning into him and became a liquid again
and they were just drinking with water and it was
a fantastic drink.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Right.
Speaker 6 (27:09):
British people are like, we love what you're guys doing
with the French one up in Holland. We cannot pronounce
it brand wins, so let's just rename it brandy.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
That's how the world brandy came to life. Wow.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
So brandy was originally invented in Holland by them messing
up transporting the wine from France.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Insane history happened by accidents, yo. Some of the greatest
things in life happened by accident. That's what you already know.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Some of the greatest joys we enjoying life happened by accident,
for sure. So that's that's an amazing story. And I
know they call it brandy because like they say, all
brandy is Connak, but all Cognac came brandy.
Speaker 6 (27:54):
I'm saying, my brother, you got it wrong. All cognacs
have brandy, but not all brand These are Connak. So yeah,
I knew the slogan. I just had a bagward it.
Because so the first alcohol that got the name brandy
was the beginning of cognac. And uh, now brandy is
the world that we use for any fruit distillate, which
(28:16):
is what you have apple brandy, pit brandy, cherry brandy,
all those tyff of brandy. When you use a fruit,
you can collect a brandy. Now to be cognac you
have to be made in the region of connect grapes
here the grapes are all around.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
The city, yes, everywhere.
Speaker 6 (28:31):
And so those that kept on coming to friends just
getting that much wine, shipping back to holland distilling it,
and that was like, areer trendy Northern Europe way to drink?
And at one point somebody idea, it was like, why
do we keep going to Connect to take that much wine?
And we go all the way up to a land
with distiller and we have that much that detail of
distiller because you lose so much in distillation. And so
(28:53):
somebody that I need to bring the still in cognac.
And so now French people started to find out, oh,
that's what you've been doing with our because they were
just selling training the white They had no idea what
I was happening in there, and so they got into
the process. So they were seeing that the dish were
using like a specific steel, the stilling. Once drink it
with water and the things that when you put the
(29:13):
one into the distinction process, it comes out as clear
as water, like a vodka gin like, that's clear.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
This is why you need the Kolyak generalmen which come
to the chateau will share the whole thing, that's right.
Speaker 6 (29:26):
And so when they brought the still in in France,
people started to the French people started to understand what
they were doing, and they got involved in the process
and they added a layer of complexity by double stilling,
so that will raise the ABV and give you something
like more pure. And that was the very beginning of conjunct.
So now again the dish keep on trading the liquids.
(29:48):
So this liquid, now that I was this still in Cognac,
was put into cask because that's what's the only way
you could travel, you could shift things. So they put
the liquid into cask. And now they go back to
Holland they opened the cast the lique with brown. So
that's when we started to figure out that, oh, we
can age it and it gets better and better, and
then the first connect houses came because again like when
they were distilling it in the in the in land,
(30:10):
they were just getting the distillate and tried with water,
so everything was clear. And now the liquid was sitting
into the cast for several months or years and then
it got brown and okay, because of the exchange of
the liquid with the wood.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
We have barrels that's in this castle older than our country.
Oh yeah, we do.
Speaker 6 (30:30):
I know, I've seen older than the country. Now we
have the castle is definitely older than the country. We
started making cognact Like the very first connect house was
created in sixteen nineteen, so America was was already around
the constitution, wasn't there.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
We celebrated two hundred and fifty years about sixteen nineteen.
Well we're about to celebrate in four years the one hundred,
the one thousand years.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
I know, I know four more years when we build
this castle in ten thirty, ten thirty insane.
Speaker 6 (31:04):
So that's the the and that's part of the French
history because I'm jumping back into Konuk in a minute,
but this castle is the history of France.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Is the history of Cognac is the history of French running.
The French Renaissance was born here.
Speaker 6 (31:17):
Discastle was built in ten thirty. It became the royal
castle of Knack in fourteen ninety four, when France is
the first.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
The King of France was born in the room just
before behind them, that's right.
Speaker 6 (31:30):
And the history history, history, history, fourteen ninety four history.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
So she started scared teaching this.
Speaker 6 (31:39):
I mean I got I had to come here to
learn about it, like I didn't go to school to
the ground.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
That's right. Even in the history books, I learned what
the first.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
I didn't know about the Cognac neither until I came here,
until I met you, and then we did the tour.
That's why I needed you to enlighten the people or
what they drinking, what they enjoyed, because they don't understand
the making of vs O P like vs O P
XO like.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Tell them the age difference. It takes five years the
age vs O P it takes so basically cognac.
Speaker 6 (32:11):
The process to make cognac is you take grapes that
must be grown around a specific perimeter around the town
of Conjure.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
You take those grapes. You have them, but like mid September,
you press them.
Speaker 6 (32:24):
It gives you a juice. You let this juice ferments
or you're at some use. It gives you a wine,
a one that you cannot really enjoy, is not a
drinkable wine. So then you distill it, but you will
distill it two times. So we have a specific like
alumic char put steam ad a fully out of copper,
and this has a way to kind of like burn
with like an open fire fire. It burns the wine.
(32:47):
The one s turns into steam. Steam goes into the
swan neck. We're gonna put a picture of the.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Stealing machine. Yes I know, we got that will help.
We're gonna show them some footage of it. And then
you have like the this liquid.
Speaker 6 (33:02):
You put your wine as about twelve person a BV
into this almbic or still. The first distillation will give
you a liquid that we call boui that is about
thirty percent ABV.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
That's what the Ditch used to drink with water. That's
the first distiller.
Speaker 6 (33:16):
Then the French came in and added you take that
boui and you put it back into the distillation.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Fours around and then give you.
Speaker 6 (33:24):
The OVV means water of life because you know, all
the alcohols were created at the beginning with the sense
of curing disease and water of life like drink a.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Beer and you know it had.
Speaker 6 (33:40):
They created like wine and all that. The cure he
cured does with moderation, always with moderation, but sure cured.
But so you have this od V that then we're
going to cask for several years minimum two years to
(34:00):
be able to have the label cognak.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
That's right.
Speaker 6 (34:03):
And the thing is your row material is grapes, and
every year the grapes change the same way your a
vintages in wine. How do you achieve consistency consistency in cognac.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
With your row material always changing?
Speaker 6 (34:22):
Because if you like this really nice Petrius Chatau patrits,
I know you like the good border one chattercuse of
twenty twelve. The twenty fifteen is different, and that's what
you like in ones because there's different ways of enjoying
it because of the way the climate impact the grapes.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
I'm a friend, I'm a sern. All of this cognac,
the King Karnak.
Speaker 6 (34:44):
Is consistency, yes, but how do you achieve consistency when
your ro material is always changing years after years. They
came up with the idea of blending different years together.
So now we get into the subject. We are three
main categories in cognac. Where VARs that means very special.
That would mean that the youngest other v inside the
(35:05):
barrel a spenime of two years.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
That's the bare minimum. Then you got vs. We don't
want that. We at that, we don't want that.
Speaker 6 (35:14):
You want there, we got VSOP very superior, all Paine
that means the youngest perdemen of four years and there
so extra al it's a minimum.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Of ten years and that's for every connac houses.
Speaker 6 (35:27):
So we have this those rules that are regulated by
the bn i C Bureau Nasonal Anti professional Cognac is
basically the office that rules and regulates everything when it
comes to connec. Knak is one, if not the most
regulated spirit in the world. There is so many rules
that you have to follow to create cognac that that
is really hard to make a bad cognac. I mean,
(35:48):
like you have so many rules that That's why I
love Konnak. It's a beautiful category, it's a beautiful spirit.
But of course, all of this the most because of
the way it's crafted, the way it's it's to kind
of change the vision on how you perceive Cognac. Brings
some modernity into Cognac. And that's what we've been doing.
Like at Chadot's Cognac. Again, that's a castle that was
built in ten thirty, but we started to make Connact
(36:11):
in those walls in seventeen ninety five. Again I was saying,
the first Connect house was created in sixteen nineteen, So
seventeen ninety five we already knew what was cognact, how
was Connect performing what you need to get the good Cognacs.
So there's this guy bout Hotel that wanted to create
his own Connect brand. He was looking for the right
place to make connact.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
And seventeen ninety five were like six years.
Speaker 6 (36:33):
After the French Revolution, no more kings, right, so we're
like what to do with all those castles? And they
put dis castle up to auction and this one Mension
visited the castle and bought it for one purpose to create.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
This Connact brand.
Speaker 6 (36:46):
Because the thing, the particularity of this castle, we have
like ten feet wide walls and the fish right.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
In the Champrivier.
Speaker 6 (36:53):
I mean the river is right here, right there, and
so this gives us like two different climates.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
We take that amsterday, yeah, the river and go all
the way up to the coast with the trade trip.
They was trading that yah yeah that yah yah for
that win yo. So my thing is right. We enjoyed
(37:23):
Cognak for so many years. A lot of people enjoyed
this straight.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Like what I love about what we created with do
say we was able to blend what people enjoy straight
and then what others enjoying that cosmopole cocktails Like you
would say, you know you invented the blend of both
here in France when people weren't doing that.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
What was your drive and your vision behind?
Speaker 6 (37:49):
So that's what that's I've been working with you for
seven years now, but I've been in the hospitality for
twenty years as well for my career.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
I love doing this this, I love this industry.
Speaker 6 (37:58):
And uh and I noticed in my bat in a
carrier that Cognac wasn't really using cocktails.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
I'm like in bars you.
Speaker 6 (38:04):
Could see like fifteen thee Killers, twenty whiskeys. I don't
know how many vodcasts because vodcast was really hardly still
super super boom and and you know, I was looking
to Cornac because I just had an epiphany when I
was living in London, when I was like twenty and
the things I had to be in London to discover Corgnac.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
That's a friend spirit.
Speaker 6 (38:24):
And then I said my about in the career, and
I noticed Connac wasn't using cocktails, wasn't using bars, and
so in every bar that I worked, I pushed for
Cornach cocktails because with this epiphany, I called at the
rat At Too moment, I had a really high cognac.
I was working in a restaurant and the bar manager
like after a dinner gave me like a massive glass
of cognac and I could sip on it and I
(38:46):
you know, like in Rata Too, when that piece of cheese,
close the eyes, the fire works.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
That's what happened to me.
Speaker 6 (38:52):
I was twenty years old. In France, you're allowed to
drink from eighteen. Okay, wow, so I was twenty years old.
I wasn't in the age and I had this this
moments and then I came back to France and realized
cognac wasn't really celebrated. So I started to push it
and alder Bards and I walked in Australia. I was
putting cocktaila with cognac on the menus. Then I came
back to France. Was part of the opinion of the
(39:12):
cocktail about focus on whiskeys. But while I was in
that bar, I was starting to discover like the other
French spirits Calvados, Armagnac, and I fell in love with those,
and so with a friend of mine Omar, were opened
the Sindica in twenty fourteen, which was the very first
and only cocktail in the world using only French alcohol,
in order to showcase the craft that we're in friends
to be proud of our liqueurs, because the thing is
(39:33):
like ninety eight person of cognac is exported in France.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
We don't drink cognac. I know that. That's when I
tell people that that yo, when you come back think
about it.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
I'm in Paris. I called you like, yo, bro, there's
no way I can find a bat or do say.
It's insane. They don't sell it anywhere, and we have
to change that because it is not like the French
don't love collyac, but I don't stay why they don't sell,
they don't know much about it.
Speaker 6 (39:58):
In a way that the for us, it's our grandpa's
spirits because commonly in France we've been enjoying cognac all
those other leaks at the end of the meal that
just needs traits.
Speaker 3 (40:12):
So that's the vision that we have when it comes
to Cognac.
Speaker 6 (40:14):
The thing in America, Cognac we forgot about this, but
Cognak was one of the most used spirits at the
beginning of the cocktail culture in eighteen fifties, when cocktails
were created in the Orleans or somewhere else in America,
Cognac was the most readily available spirit and a lot
of classic cocktails were created first with cognac and then
(40:37):
on to other brands or the categories. And we forgot
about that because of two big moments within the world.
So again the cocktail errus are in eighteen fifties in America,
the Sasaraq was one of the first cocktail created with cognac.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
It was greated with cognak.
Speaker 6 (40:56):
The brandy Crust, created in the Audians was the first
cocktail with lemon juice in it, and so this inspired
bartonders to open order to create other recipes using fresh
and fresh juices.
Speaker 3 (41:09):
And you see that from the Brandy crystal. So that
was a guy called Joseph somethin.
Speaker 6 (41:12):
He had a bar called Jewel of the South in
New Orleans, and he created Brandy Kreuszler to be like
the most sophisticate drink back then. So there was that
cognac orangely care marskin o li care lemon juice and
shaken a bit of soda, nice sugar rim and a
big pill of lemon. And that was like the world
cocktail of the the era, okay, and everybody was like
(41:34):
really raving by that cocktail, and Bartonders started to look
into this, Okay, this is a bit of like too
much work, so let's just kind of like dialing it down,
and they created the Brandy Daisy. Eighteen seventy six was
the first time there was a mention of the brandy Daisy,
which was cognac, orangely care lemon juice and soda water,
really refreshing drink. And then came the whiskey daisy, rem
daisy Jean daisy. But if you look at the way
(41:56):
brandy daisy is made in eighteen seventies, it was basically,
the Sidecar, which is the most known cocktail with cognac,
is a result is a daisy in a way, how
do you say, Margarita, Oh, how do you say daisy
in Spanish? Margarida, Margarida is a daisy. What I'm doing
right now is you say, is really reconnect h everybody
(42:19):
about like the mixability of the fact that cognach has
always been used in cocktails.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
But like there was the film Crisis.
Speaker 6 (42:26):
It's a it's an e pyramid that destroyed all the
vineyards in Ferns and Europe, so we couldn't make any
more wine, so we couldn't make any more cognact, so
butnot had to sove recipes to keep the recipe alive,
but not putting their hand on connact. Then they put whiskey,
they put rum and uh and then the prohibsion happen
in America. So another way, like Connact stepped back from
being the filth thought product in cocktails. But the thing
(42:48):
what I love is do say is that we are
creating in the chateau as you said, as you were
saying like it is a modern Connack, it is a
connect to make cocktail whiz because We've been making can
Cognact since seventeen ninety five when we created and twelve.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
We created it knowing how people drink today.
Speaker 6 (43:07):
So they still love to sleep on the kangnak, but
they love to mix it too, That's right, which is
why we were threat to the vsop to have again
four years old, to have a corner that has a
lot of body that can be sipping for any cognac matter.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
And then there has a lot of bodies that shine
through any cocktails anything. So really drinking, do say water
right over there? Do say apple juice right now?
Speaker 6 (43:28):
I'm just having the same weather the dish were drinking
like this brand Winge was that the wine is tilled
with water.
Speaker 3 (43:36):
I'm just having douicy and clear water.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Still what I do say with apple juice or a
little splash of cocar colon, give it that pop.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
But you know we're gonna say anything.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
We're gonna have the deal. Several coats. We gotta make
the deal. Summer cocktails, for sure, we're gonna have that.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
That that's that mass.
Speaker 6 (43:53):
So this summer for me was again inspired by the
daisy how to bring modernity, so honoring the past with
the day is he but creating a more than coctain
inspired by you?
Speaker 3 (44:03):
Right? Yeah, you asked me for You're like, yo, what's
the favorite fruits? What's this? What's flavors? You're like a
a and then you came up with something. I'm time.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
I've been getting calls about it all summer, every event,
people like Yo, they told me believe you had.
Speaker 3 (44:15):
Something to do with the did summer drink that drink fire.
Speaker 6 (44:19):
It's fling my hands on that recipe we're gonna have
on a tonight or tomorrow during this show.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
That's a fact, is that because you gotta put that
the care uh because in love that exotic notes. You know,
my first trip to Hawaii changed my life. I'm a
guava man now.
Speaker 6 (44:38):
Friendly glover man, a flemon And of course you're like
you so tell a psico.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
That's right. You gotta put the bubbles man, Yo, Sally Man,
I appreciate you. You already know.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
Du say brand is what it is because the guys
like you, and I want everybody to understand and know
when they come down to mix and a drink.
Speaker 3 (44:57):
This guy got all the recipes.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
We gotta somehow get the recipes out where we need
to give it to the people.
Speaker 3 (45:04):
You know what I'm saying, Like I have the it's
like a dictionary book.
Speaker 1 (45:07):
I don't know you created this. No, that was before
my time, okay, but I know some of your cocktails is.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
In this book.
Speaker 6 (45:13):
They're on the website. But we are resigning the website,
so take on dot com.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
Later in the year. We're gonna have a whole new website.
And so people gotta understand.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
Man, trust me, change your margaritas, your pinic colladers.
Speaker 3 (45:27):
Your side cars. Put that dude say in there and
change your life. It works in every cocktail. Trying the
Exposo Martini.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
Oh my Jesus right express, Oh my Jesus, man, that's
it tastes like it should be illegal.
Speaker 6 (45:44):
Man, I had one with Exo. We gotta try an
ex expos On Martini phenomena.
Speaker 3 (45:49):
We an't want. I mean like X. It's mixable too.
It is a higher sq our Exo is ten to
twenty years with a fifteen years average. It is delicious.
You can mix it, can you got me like?
Speaker 5 (46:03):
I like it.
Speaker 3 (46:04):
I like it on the rocks, but I also like
it in the good cocktail. That's right.
Speaker 6 (46:07):
But if you want to pay some fruits, some lemon.
Just the VSLB was created for that, so happened with it?
Anything work with I'm telling you really.
Speaker 3 (46:14):
Anything, trust anything magnificant. My brother, my brother, brother. Come on, man,
come on man, anytime you is your house. Did you
tell them that tomorrow you pay for me in the chateau? Yeah?
They know. Tomorrow is the performance at the chateau. They
know this is what we do the first time in
(46:35):
the history of the Castle of Cognac. Hip hop. Hip
hop is gonna be played and pay form. I'm gonna
I'm gonna be honest. The king rolling over in his grave,
he'll be had all of us. Then it'll be dancing
on your head, bro, Definitely. They hang a hand on
the on the on the bridge. Love my brother, check
(46:59):
my guy. I appreciate you. Come on, man, let's go.
You know what it is.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
Man, got my guy Pools back in the building out here, man,
but I ain't gonna front you. Was acting a little
shook like it's your first time, like you just met
a chick.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
I just had to do. Say with water, do say
with pineapple, Do say with soda, Do say with apple juice?
You activate with everything, Do say over everybody you act that.
I I had to. I had to get my little
bit of sip arm to understand what a wedding. I'm ready.
I'm ready right now, I'm feeling great. I'm out here
in Cognac, France for the music festival.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
Let these guys know, though, Man, they talking out there reckless.
Tell them we're about to get.
Speaker 3 (47:39):
On their yo.
Speaker 2 (47:40):
We don't ever talk reckless over here, though.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
Tell them listen. Let them know pools were about to
get on that culture every day. They want them topics.
They want us to talk about them topics.
Speaker 3 (47:53):
They want to know why be on the pod.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
There's so much to talk about. They want to compare.
Speaker 3 (47:57):
They want to know why Jane been on.
Speaker 2 (47:59):
Compare us to GQ, which is an honor, thank you,
because I don't even know how I belong in the
conversation that there's there's you know, there's a whole nother
level to the game. When I saw that, I said, Wow,
they compared us to g Q.
Speaker 3 (48:15):
Thank you. I like that.
Speaker 2 (48:21):
I've been around some of the best writer.
Speaker 3 (48:23):
You rubbing off some of the best writer the golden
pan too much in the studio with the writer some
of the.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
Best, brilliant people in the industry. So I've been able
to sit and be a fly on the wall in
a lot of rooms that I didn't belonging and shout
out to you for that, like a lot of different
situations like the janitor, like the janitor in the room,
like I'm just soaking everything in. And I flied a
lot of that in my life. What I did, you
know my other endeavors to that because I'm not a
(48:49):
music person, but I learned through you people like your
you know, bank shout out bank people. Black rob was
originally my my family.
Speaker 3 (49:00):
I'm saying. So what I'm saying that's where I met
the poons with black I'm.
Speaker 2 (49:04):
A fan, bro, I'm a fan of hip hop. I'm
a fan of of the culture. So I don't know
a lot of people call me a culture vulture because
of my skin. No, so how to get a tann
cognac with that?
Speaker 3 (49:18):
It's my black white my so I can get invited
to the barbecue you've been.
Speaker 1 (49:21):
At the y I'm Silian, Yo, Yo chill. I took
this dude to a soul food spot in Brooklyn. Yo,
what was the soul food spot? We went to a
Brooklyn They're gonna kill.
Speaker 3 (49:36):
The critic of the name. If I know, Oh my god,
he's a food chancer.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
It was a food chase.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (49:40):
I took them the food chases and front I took
it to a spot. We went to New Orleans.
Speaker 1 (49:46):
Yo.
Speaker 3 (49:46):
This guy about Yo, Lizzy Pooso.
Speaker 2 (49:49):
I showed my roots.
Speaker 1 (49:50):
He might be wearing Champion hoodies and Biscuits sweat pants
at night where he's.
Speaker 3 (49:54):
Not with me. Show my roots.
Speaker 2 (49:56):
I show my roots. My family is originally from Corleon
in Naples, so southern.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
You see this man in the play construction had jeans.
Just let him be on his way. He going to
the Soulfu restaurant.
Speaker 2 (50:09):
Happens stop it. Thanks to Bleak, I got invited to
the barbecue. But that being said, I'm better at basketball
than Bleak. Never I could jump higher than Bleak.
Speaker 3 (50:18):
White man can't chime. White man can't jump. We've seen
the movie.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Listen, your man, cheech will tell you what cheach your
fans production the best shooting.
Speaker 3 (50:26):
The Minigans can't play basketball, the.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
Best shooters in France, But Tommy Pouh's are the best
shooter in New Jersey. Al Harrington everybody brings bring it, Tommy,
bring it. Everybody listen that that's arcade games, video games,
whatever games.
Speaker 1 (50:42):
Schwartz, I'm your guy, he said, listen sports any video games.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
Yeah, virgin has.
Speaker 3 (50:50):
Four three two one original. Anything you want to smoke called.
Speaker 2 (50:54):
Game boy, saying listen, I come from up game Q.
Riverside Church he has Vita coach Ernie Lorch. Google him, Ernie.
Speaker 3 (51:03):
Lorch, dumb wrestling.
Speaker 2 (51:05):
Stop it, stop it. Riverside Church Uptown was where it started.
Speaker 3 (51:10):
So smoke anything that take. That's competition.
Speaker 7 (51:14):
Google that baseball, dodge ball, George Washington, douicide, stop it.
Coca Livia to say, with water, hot peas and butter
to stay with water.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
Whatever they want to back second y, no, listen, stop
and stop it.
Speaker 3 (51:34):
Better Frisby like I want to bad way, a bad way.
I play what they used to say.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
Well, sound like that. It sounds like a Brooklyn versus
Harlem rivalry. And I'm on the bridge in northern New Jersey.
Speaker 3 (51:47):
We brought it back. Now That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (51:48):
What they want better Calico Vision Now listen, got all
the games. I'm all want to go on the record
man MIT's pac Man, I can pack.
Speaker 2 (51:56):
I want to go on the record for competitive, competitive.
Speaker 3 (52:00):
Tari and six hundred. You don't know about that.
Speaker 2 (52:04):
You're like you sound like rabbit, you sound like something
champs meo, geo. Let me talk for a second. Let
me talk for a second. Can I talk for a second.
In competitive sports, right when you grew up in Brooklyn
and you play anything from bean bags to shuffle boards
to basketball, anything competitive, even against you go against the
(52:27):
Brooklyn Cat, the most ship in the world.
Speaker 3 (52:31):
A lot of them will back it up.
Speaker 2 (52:33):
But this guy, Marcy the.
Speaker 3 (52:37):
Battery cooking pancakes.
Speaker 2 (52:38):
Hold on, you're talking a lot on your own show, Sally.
Thanks for the duce and water you guy.
Speaker 3 (52:45):
Blee, just letting him know we competitive everything. I hate
him so much.
Speaker 2 (52:51):
I hate him so much that I cleaned grind.
Speaker 7 (52:53):
Back flips, front flips, lds, Rodney Davis, ever.
Speaker 3 (52:57):
They want to do.
Speaker 2 (52:58):
We combat get the danger doing the triple Indy on
the Willian top backboard in Dudes, stop it, stop it,
bro He's Brooklyn, dudes, man. Let me tell you, like
I I'm from north He's not gonna stop you up.
Speaker 3 (53:13):
Put the quarter water in the tire motorcycle.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
I consider myself from New Jersey, but I'm really an uptown.
Speaker 3 (53:19):
Dude, even walk In can't battle me.
Speaker 2 (53:22):
These dudes from Brooklyn, they spit and they talk more
than anybody.
Speaker 1 (53:27):
Just you.
Speaker 3 (53:28):
You started and you said competition. So I just wanted
to let it know.
Speaker 2 (53:30):
It's an ebony and you want to battle rivalry right now?
Week of bat Larry Bird versus Maddie Johnson. You heard
all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (53:38):
We know Bird versus very that verse and a lot
of difference, that a lot of.
Speaker 2 (53:43):
Pity and Michael Jackson, he said, yes, right, I'll take
Paul lccartney.
Speaker 3 (53:47):
I got you.
Speaker 2 (53:49):
You can't moon walk on nothing.
Speaker 3 (53:50):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (53:52):
WoT in stare contaest?
Speaker 2 (53:56):
You saying cold water? You heard I was put on
by the locals.
Speaker 3 (54:00):
They want to all wrestle, dumb wrestle.
Speaker 2 (54:02):
I said that one listen camera, whatever they want to do, Yo,
that's what production I want.
Speaker 3 (54:08):
We all that type of Sullivan's drinking.
Speaker 2 (54:11):
Hold on, hold on a second. I gotta shush you.
Speaker 3 (54:15):
You shish me. I have to.
Speaker 2 (54:18):
I'm the only one that can do that.
Speaker 1 (54:21):
Yo.
Speaker 3 (54:23):
What you're trying to shih What you shished me to say?
After show? You what you shished me after the show?
Say what you sh to say.
Speaker 2 (54:31):
Sullivan taught me about saying cold water. It is a
fucking vibe. It's a movement.
Speaker 3 (54:38):
Luck you said that from Daisy to jay Z.
Speaker 2 (54:43):
So the thirty year reunion is real.
Speaker 3 (54:46):
You just gotta you just got a reasonable doubt.
Speaker 1 (54:49):
Thy years later after sheet of paper was ripped out
of the notebook and told me to change my life,
and god damn has it changed my life.
Speaker 3 (54:57):
I wouldn't be here without.
Speaker 2 (54:58):
That piece of Backwise, you no what it is?
Speaker 3 (55:00):
Do you say? Mafia live in Kojak.
Speaker 2 (55:03):
Friends, shout out King francois.
Speaker 3 (55:05):
Live that Shatak.
Speaker 2 (55:07):
Without him, this is possible.
Speaker 3 (55:09):
And with my man Pooso, we ready to battle anything
you say.
Speaker 2 (55:12):
Mafia you're even I'm up. I'm out of here.
Speaker 3 (55:15):
What they what they do? What white people they be doing?
Games like stuff like that right doing potato? Say want
to ebony and ivory and what they want to do? Limbo?
Speaker 2 (55:30):
We want to there's no limbo lower now we want ebony,
we want ivory, we want they want.
Speaker 3 (55:39):
And the mocker rain.
Speaker 2 (55:40):
This is Dominican Bleak sounding off Live. You heard.
Speaker 3 (55:49):
Shot Poozo Tommy Vegan.
Speaker 5 (55:58):
For more podcasts from iHeart Ready, visit iHeartRadio app, Apple
podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows at
and you can follow me on any social media platform
under the name Memphis Bleach.
Speaker 3 (56:10):
You see anybody fraud in, flag him
Yeah, you know what it is exclusive episode of rock
Solid podcast Yours Truly Memphis Bleak Live from Koyak, France.
Man told me Koyak and this is brought to you
by Advanced Productions. My guys holding me down, but let's
toast to my partner who's oh in the building aka
(00:36):
Tommy Vegan. Sir, when you see the sign that means
the Mafias and the magi feak here man something my.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Guy, Man nothing, man, just honor to be here, yo, dude,
on this journey back again.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
We was just hand September.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Right during the super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
We was here September during the super Bowl. We didn't
make it to New Orleans. And it's crazy that all
of Flower was everything was dead.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
It was cold.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
We was running around, but we had to come to
the chateau. But why I got my guy, Tommy ve
Gan on with me right now because he's a very
very important person when it comes to this brand. Do say,
because when we first launched the brand, who got the
call pools?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Nah? Yeah, we started this. Like I said, it was
the opportunity of a lifetime. What year was it actually
twenty twelve?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I want to say, yeah, it was twelve years ago,
so yeah, twenty fourteen.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
And you had run up to the office to talk
to Jay, and like the rest was history. I think
from there you said I needed the opportunity to work
and do something different. The music. The music thing was
was in and out, like you weren't really into it time.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
No, no, no, keep it clean till that shit was dried up.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Like we could say that, say that part the.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Music was dried. It wasn't checking for bleak.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
But I was just in the right place at the
right time. I had. I had driven you to the office.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
That day, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
And then you came out with the bottle, if I
believe I'm correct, right, and you said we need to
start making some moves.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yo, And then it's crazy. Let me tell y'all that's
real scenario. So I called Jay. I tell him, hey, yo, Jay,
the music ain't going down. I need something else, man,
I want to I want to try something outside of
being an artist.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
And he was like, Yo, you ready to work.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Man.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
You can't be showing up to the meet and smelling
like weed bleak. You can't be sleep at the meetings.
Wilding out. So I'm like, nah, man, this ain't bleak.
This is Malik. I really really need a shot. Bro
give me something. So he like, all right, I got
something for you. Come to the office. You show me
the bottle, we take a shot. He like, bleak, you did.
You can move this, and I'm like, of course. Now,
(02:42):
Pools was downstairs because at this time the office was
just built. And remember they didn't have the parking.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Lanes they started just started.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
The Pools was holding it down so we didn't get
a two hundred and twenty five dollar ticket. That's how
they bang you in New York two twenty five or
one twenty five, one of those. So Jay gave me
the bottle. I'm like, yo, you know me, I'm a hustler.
I used to sell fireworks, crack whatever. I could move this.
So he like, show me what you could do. I
go downstairs to the car. I show Pools or the bottle.
(03:10):
I'm like, yo, Pools. Hope said, if we could move
this and turn this up, we could take over. Pool said,
I got you bleak.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah from there. I mean it's like the wheels turned.
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
I'm not even gonna take the credit because all I
did was steal the deal. But Pool said, y'a, I'm
gonna make one call to my man, my tale you
t town.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
So now mind you, I didn't know who he was.
Tell him who your tale was a tale?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
He well, he's just a guy uptown, if you know.
You know, he ran all the cabs services on Marina,
which was the biggest club at the time. Like Marina
was wasn't even a Marina.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
It was just it was just it was just the
West Side was just building it, right, they were just
opening it.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
He was he was getting ready to launch, you know,
at the right time. So we had brought the.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Bay to him.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, so Pools off the rip called me bleek. My
man uptown got a new club, Colllin Marina. He want
to buy a hundred cases. You gotta come here. You
gotta meet me up here right now. So I'm like,
all right, let's shoot up there. I get to the meeting.
It's the representative for the NYC Taxi Cab Commission. It's
(04:17):
like anything ever happened in NYC with it with a taxi.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
He was on the new guy. But I don't know Spanish,
so you know, that's where he was, and he was
going hard representing for.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
The Dominicans, anybody, any immigrant, Mexican, Dominican, any Latin descent.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
He was representing.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
So to see him at the meeting was like booso
for dull.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
You know, the cab.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Dude, the taxi dude shout and yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
And he wanted to buy a Hondrey cases. His whole
thing was Yo. I'm like, Yo, you buy a Hundrey cases.
I guarantee j gonna pull up. I remember at this time,
I'm like, yo, you gotta have the boat doc built
because Jay want to come in on the yacht.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
He said, what was it gonna take to get Jay here?
And then we said in.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
The boat the cases, the hondred cases in the boat
dove right. We never got the boat dock, but we
got the honey cases moving. And you know what's so
iconic about the honey cases because when they first started
to do, say, there wasn't no salary, there wasn't no Yo,
you're gonna make this much a marsh You're gonna do nothing.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
It was commission.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
It was like, yo, for every case you moved, bleak,
we're gonna give you fifty dollars off for case. So
mind you who's with I went crazy, honey off. So
then I called my bro uncle b I Brooklyn liquor store.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
We've been going to.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
The whole life Brooklyn.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
You know what I mean. Shout out my dog Mic
over there.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
You know what I mean, murder Ave got the liquor
store boom in our whole life, go talk the mic.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Mike bought a honey Then I called my dog Fred.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
C out Vegas expansion.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
The poems could seine off went on the lits. I
got a call to the office. You know what they said, bleak,
we can no longer give you commission.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
You bleed us drive. We're gonna give you a salary
and we're gonna hold you there, continue doing your thing.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
You have to keep in mind that was twenty twelve,
so fast forward. Here we're in twenty twenty six, and
to be here at the Chateau is it's something that
you can't even describe.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
But I just wanted to bring him through the journey,
like back in the day to begin members like I
don't like bringing up other brands, and I'm not gonna
name other brands.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
But it was difficult to get Duce poppermember.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
It was another brand out there, paying bars clubs and
restaurants right not.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
To put us on the shelf.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
So we had to deal with all of that, you
know what I'm saying, and think about it. We even
had haters on our team. I even had ambassadors that
would find out I got a certain account member.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
We got love and lesson Brooklyn, lot of jealousy YO had.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
It was another Duce ambassador who went to the cloud
and told the promoter, Yo, don't deal with Bleak.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
He's a rapper man. You want to buy it?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Didn't take you serious as an entrepreneur yet.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Yeah, pools man, the rat has been crazy, right, how
much do say you that had in your trunk?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
God, it was it was like selling out of my trunk,
like bootlegging, you know what I mean. At that time,
twenty twelve, it wasn't distributed yet, so we had bottles
coming from here Cognac. And then when you get to
you know, I highly recommend if you get to come
out here and come on a tour and just experience
this entire. Yeah, this entire. The way that it's made,
(07:34):
the way that everything is done here is unique and
that's what makes it special. So I don't think is
really in competition with anybody else. Because of the history
of the of the castle and the way that everything
is done here. It's just different. It's a history, you know,
it's a history lesson, it really is, and I'm a
nerd for that. So, like I said, the energy just
when you come here, if you get a chance to
(07:55):
visit Chateau de Cognac, highly recommend the tour and the
people here. Everyone here is incredible, So shout out to
advanced productions and all the people that work at the museum.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Yo.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
But you're saying they like we about long golf.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I just got here to meet everybody. So I'm just
I'm still blown away by the whole.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Like Tommy Vegan is in his element, no I am,
He's in relaxed.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
I wish you would have saw Tommy Vegan in Paris.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
It's a certain kind of energy here. You know, it's
different than being in New Jersey and New York. You
know where we're from, so where we Yeah, it's a different,
different energy here.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
So it's just.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
We live right now. You know, Like just left Paris
and I did a couple of days there. I know
you had your daughter at Disney, you know, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
It's like a talking about yo, jay man.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
It's like it's like a workation for you though.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Yo, when they're gonna take their kids or they girl.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Out, listen, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Don't worry about what. Don't worry about the wrap side,
the family side.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
But just you know, like I said, I was out
here when I was younger, at twenty one, I didn't
get to really experience Paris and then running around, you know,
with you on tour everywhere. Being able to come back
here and experience it as an adult, it's a whole
different vibe, yo.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
But let's give him some history about you, man, like,
thank god everything is legal now.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Rest in peace to my bro Ralph. Ralph was my dog.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
If you seen round here video here the reason the
doors was up in the truck that gave me all
the whips. Lay stole my whips after my guy. But
he used to brag about this guy who had good
weed in Jersey. He used to be like, Yo, my bro, Poozo,
he got that fire bleak.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
You gotta meet him. So one day we ride bikes, you.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Know what I mean, going to Beer Mountain and he like, yo,
my boy lived right over here, bleek let's stop by
the crib.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
I'm like, all right, I need some wee. Let's pull up.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
The one time my god, Tommy Vegan actually had good weeds.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
That's how you're gonna You're gonna drop that to.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Day I met him, the pack was fire, me and
my man Saffee, shout out, Saffee. We just pulling up
to the crib by zips. I think you lost that connection.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Not at all. You're You're just you're a kinnoisseur. So
it's hard to keep a client like you happy all
the time, you know what I mean, Because you're you're
you have a different kind of uh you know, caste
bud for for the for the bud, you know. So
it's it's different. You're you're very hard to keep satisfied
in that department because I feel like you're traveling all
(10:31):
over the world, so you have the opportunity to smoke
on all kinds of exams.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Yeah, I recognized tra personally.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I'm only you recognized I go from howd I go
from such a great thing to such a track?
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Did you lose?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
What do you think I'm baiting and switching on you?
Speaker 3 (10:47):
I don't know. We don't connect we don't. But now
I'm the connect, like you see how life work. He
started out as my con that now I'm your connect.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Well there's an element of truth to that though, if
you think about it, because what you and I had
built with mine, right, I'm saying my right exotic, it
surpassed me because you guys actually started growing your own
So I never I never had I never really had
an opportunity. I was always trying to pay someone to
do it for me, you know what I mean. So
when you guys, I saw you building that part of
(11:18):
the business.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
This is the This is why we connect because you
know they used to say back in the days when
hydro and ship first came out.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Who had it? The white boys? Right? We know what
I did have me.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
You're right about that, but you you would know better
because you know it started in Holland, started in Amsterdam.
So you know those old growers, Jack Hira, Northern Lights,
all those old strands, they came from Holland. And then
what happened is they migrated over to California. And so
you know about that. You've been in Amsterdam how many
times in your life?
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Four million times?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Yea four million?
Speaker 3 (11:48):
And he's three million times.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
I've been to Kolnak twice, right right, so we gotta
add some more.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
We should talk about that too. So we were out
here during the Super Bowl toa we gotta bring that
one back, and then we got to take the tour here.
It was absolutely incredible. Once again, I can't stop talking
about it because of how incredible it is. That being said,
I said, how can I get bleak back here? Yo,
to you know, to do some kind of an event
or do something so low and behold Sullivan. Shout out
(12:19):
Sullivan put us on. There's a music festival in Kgnak
July second. So I said to myself, we gotta make
this happen because I don't think a hip hop artist,
let alone an artist, has ever performed at the Chateau Cognac.
So that being said is it's history being made here.
And then you know, we were able to make this happen.
(12:40):
So shout out Sullivan for having us and making this happen.
But the music festival I'm most excited to see because
last time we were here was cold. We didn't get
to really enjoy this.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
East Hampton right.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
The river, so that the drop is beauty here. So
I'm excited for that.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
I'm glad you're excited because you know you the hype man.
I know.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Listen, we we talked about this. I know pretty much
like ninety percent of your lyrics. So in my head,
I'm thinking to myself, maybe I could be an artist
one day.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
You could be the hype man tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
I got it. I got a team of people.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
We was rehearsing right on the back and we rehearse it.
My man was helping me because I forgot some of
the lyrics.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
But he's like, yo, I know.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
All the lyrics, so he helping me. That's not my
I was telling him he was one second, but that's.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Not I'm always going to because I'm a fan man.
At the end of the day, so I grew I
grew up listening to your music. Jah Ru, you know
all that coming up, so Nori like, I grew up
on all that music. So at the end of the day,
you know that that to me, I know every single
line of all those tracks you could play, but I
never performed, so I'll never be able to. People don't
(13:52):
realize That's one thing I've been on the road with
you forever. That's how difficult it is.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
What's your favorite trip with me? We've been every man.
Your favorite.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
There's a lot of them, bro, there's a lot of them.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
My favorite, I would. I'm gonna let you answer it.
What was your favorite trip for me?
Speaker 2 (14:08):
For me, it was a Ruba just because that was
right around the time you were about to get married,
and it wasn't really it wasn't really any work stuff involved.
Were able to just you know, chill out, see the island,
kind of vibe, relaxed, drink du st.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
You know, said man's Canada Toronto would superstar j.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I don't know who we were.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Vancouver, Toronto went with me.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
When we got to the border, I was with you.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Actually, as a matter of fact, you wouldn't have got
in the country if it wasn't for me, because what I.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Said, you went with me when we got to the border,
I was with you.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Won't get too specific specific because they don't want to
let me in.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
This is when we was illegal. So I used to
know no no bull right. I'm gonna tell y'all real
quick recap. I used to get locked up for we
every week in New Jersey.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
In my town.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
There was a captain who had I don't know, he
just didn't like me whenever he sing my car pull
that shit over.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
So I remember telling this copy I'm.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Not the average dude. I don't sell drugs in your community.
I'm just coming through and you just for some reason
he's pulling me over. I got no problem with y'all
out of that. Harassment, straight harassment. So I called my
lawyer and I told him. He says, the chief, the
chief not supposed to be fucking with you. So the
chief we win. My lawyer win sued them, did this
(15:37):
for harassment. He got fired. Long story short, here we
go going to Canada. All his charges fucked me up.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
They didn't want to let me in Canada and they said,
you got too many charges. Go home.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Let me take over from that part. So I'm at
the window and we're talking to the lady for immigration
and they're like, well, your friend is definitely not coming
into the country because he has, you know, fifty arrests
from marijuana and that's not happening. So I was, you know,
he's about to curse her out, and I was. I said,
(16:09):
please stand aside, let the Italian handle it.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
I gave it.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I had a little you know, I had a little
talk with the lady. I got her supervisor over. I said,
he's got to perform with J. I made up a
whole story. But I don't even think we're on toward
J and I just made up a whole I think
I made up a whole story that he has to
perform with Jay.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
I'm going to get fired with Superstars.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I made up a whole story, but a bunch of
bunch of stuff. But anyway, eventually they led us in
the country and I did, I pulled my finesse, you
know what I mean, And I made that happen. We
were with Superstar J too, and then we took the
whole tour. So we're in Toronto, I believe. Then we
went to Winnipeg. We did a couple of tracks Winnipeg
(16:48):
Shoutout Peace, Silvan and Winnipeg did a couple did a
couple of tracks in the snow trip. Because bring that
trip up to this day where he legendary legend.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I ain't know when you was taking that.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Yeah, I think it was five cities in six days.
I think it was.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
It was Winnipeg, Edmonton, a bunch of Yeah, the coldest
place you can ever go besides Finland, Finland too.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, No, Winnipeg is is a negative five, negative six,
you know, sub temperatures. But a lot of people don't
realize you're an exhausting person. Bro, since we're going to
break it down and get and get and get roll
with the like how that happened? What do you mean?
But going on tour with you is exhausting, So let
that be known. It's not a time like you think
you get to enjoy the cities and have a good
time with bleak, get up, we gotta go, get up,
(17:38):
we gotta go. It's non stop. So it's an exhausting process.
So since you want to go through it, people probably
get the wrong concept misconception of what it is in Toronto, relaxing,
hanging out, playing drake. There's none of that. You go
to bed, you sleep for three hours and your door
is getting kicked in. There's no grace period. So you know,
(17:59):
it's it's it's work. It's always worked.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
I don't think nobody always the work. We did. We
did five cities in one day.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
It was it was a yeah, it was like I said,
it was.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Just in New Jersey. Remember we just did five cities
in one day. Remember not even we did.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
But the Baltimore DMV joint.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
We did Brooklyn, Remember we started in Brooklyn, went to Manhattan,
shot two podcasts, drove the Delaware to meet somebody to
do a walk through at a grow, Drove the DC
to go test my right new product, drove back the
Delaware for another walkthrough of exactle, drove the New Jersey
(18:39):
shot another podcast, drove the New York, shot a video
with Smoke Dizzer, and then woke up at seven am
the next day to fly to another city.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
That again, this is how welage. The knowledge is different,
you know what I mean. But it started in cars.
Now now you're really up in the air now though,
So it's elevation man. But like I said, behind the scenes,
a lot of people don't realize the work that goes
into it to prepare to get to this point, you
know what I mean. So you know it's hours and
hours in the car, hours and hours on the phone,
(19:08):
hours and hours of non stop you know. So that
part I I salute you because if if it wasn't
for the hard work, we definitely wouldn't be here. So
and this position wasn't given to you either. Let's let
that be know, and I've been on the road with you.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Oh no, I had to earn it.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
It's it's you know, I'm on I'm on your show now.
But but to give you your flowers, that's so funny.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Jane thought I was gonna play with this, that I
wasn't gonna take dud Say serious.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
His whole thing was, I know you will show up
to me and you can't. They're gonna call me. You
can't gonna miss meetings.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
They're gonna call me. He said, I'm just waiting for it.
I went, so, man, it's my ship.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
You can't.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
You can't blame him because he's known you since you
were a kid. So's the same way you hire like
you gave. That's another thing. You gave a lot of
people positions and jobs and opportunity these and other things.
Not just do s. But the thing it opened up
my lane for me. I mean, I made I made
a huge you know, it was name for myself. Just
saw that lane. Yeah, it was Mafia. You know, that
(20:12):
was the original thing that.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
We made Yomember. Remember that. I remember telling Jay to
give us the budget to make.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
And he told me we had nobody ain't gonna wear
no liquor brand on their chest.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
And I was like, what right that Pmber.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
We went made the Duce Mafia hats. They made the
your shirt because he came back.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
It was the season Desist.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
He came back and season desist. Okay, you want to sell?
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Yeah right, yeah right.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
You want to sell, little bro. We started this whole movement.
That's why it's an honor to have you on this
with me.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
We'll not I appreciate that the chateau, Come on, Chateau.
I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Man.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
This castle was built in ten.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Thirty tenth century.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
It's almost century, thousand years ago.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
And then and then fast forward to Sullivan will beyond next.
I believe to give us a little bit of a break,
give your.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
History of the down everything you don't. We don't want
to give too much.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
But I want you to understand what this brand really mean,
because this brand is coming.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
To take over.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Not really is me but love.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
At first, we came to conquer the docs. We did that.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
All dogskin, niggas collide, all dogskin fan you and me
lock it.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
We did that. Now we're coming for the whites.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Anything you mix tequila, anything you mix vakaate you put
this in it, you change your life. Bet you never
had a duce pen of Colida, never had a duce Margarita,
never had a duceay sidecar, never had a Duceave.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
We just know we're not playing if I do say
so myself. All right, you already know what it is
yours truly Bleak. We back it Rock Solid Podcast Live
Chateaud the Kojak Man We out here Koyak, France. Welcome
my guy, my man Sullivan, the best ambassador, the brand ambassador,
(22:11):
the best mixologist.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
And one of my very very good friends. Man.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
You know I met you over a glass Duce and
we built a very very genuine, great relationship where we talk.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Next, we just gotta get our kids together because you're
in Florida. That's the next step.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
But last time you gonna know my guy. He definitely
popped up on us. At the Live Duce event Roots Picnic,
Sullivan was there. This time we get the real real
history of the brand. We here, Like I said, man,
we had Chateau, the Kognak and Kognak France and this
(22:49):
is all about Duce and what better way to get
the history and the history of the chateau, the history
of France and the purpose and importance of Conya from
none other then you, my brother.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Wow, that's the man doing that, isn't you know what
I'm saying? What's up, my brother? How you doing?
Speaker 5 (23:08):
You know?
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Man, it's good to see you again.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Man, you're the best dressed man. Like I gotta get
like you don't worry. Five more, ten more pounds, ten
more pounds. I'm going down like you know, like that.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
That's calling. That's pretty. I need to look as good
as the blood. You know what I'm saying. That's right,
you look good, my brother for shure. But yeah, we
have the shotters Kognak full of history. Man.
Speaker 6 (23:29):
I'm happy that you are back here because we're here
like four months ago. Yes, wintertime it was called it
was krgnac, and there.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Was no grapes on the tree. Was grapes on the
trees everywhere you go. Now it's grapes. I see why
they call it koyak. See, because like the green I
was starting right now.
Speaker 6 (23:46):
We're going to harvest them in September and then we're
gonna start making con living.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
What is kognak? You know, that's the thing like let's
get into it. Let's break it down. What is co
What is Karnak, my good friend, what is koyak? People
don't even know what they drink and they drink it,
they love it. They don't even know what it is.
So give them some science, give them some history to it.
How deep in this toy do we go? Let's go deep?
Speaker 1 (24:07):
They might say, pauls where I'm from. But ship women
love when you go deep. So that's gonna be for
the woman is Cognac. So we have to situate in
the space.
Speaker 6 (24:20):
Right now, we're in Cognac, friends, in the southwest part
of France strip about like four hundred kilometers of Paris.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
I don't know how much it is in miles, but
it's in the.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Listen and miles is about a good I say, probably
like five hundred and some change because it's what five
hours and forty five minutes by car.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yeah, so it's about six hundred miles almost.
Speaker 6 (24:39):
Now we don't drive as fast as you do, like
I feel that we'll be like two hundred like two fall.
But so in the south of France, like not far
from Bordo. This region was part of the Roman Empire
during the Third century and then notice I'm talking, we're
talking about history.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
To me, that's right injury.
Speaker 6 (24:59):
Then the so was really felt tired and they're like,
let's just have to grow grapes in the region. So
this became kind of a one region. First forward, we
go to the twelve thirteenth century. We had an issue
with the Marchland just up the coast of France, and
we didn't know how to clear the flooding. So we
called the Dutch that had some technique to help us
(25:21):
do that.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
So they came.
Speaker 6 (25:22):
They help us out there and they started to trade
the goods of the region out there, so we had
a good quality of salts. They started to the salts
because Dutch have been trading everything in the world.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
That that's what they did. They don't want smoking at bars.
They had all the men two ideas, let's go, we
got you you need help light out. One we got
the player, let's go.
Speaker 6 (25:42):
So I love that, and I guess they want a
bit high and they were like, oh, look there's this
beautiful river which is the sharonk River, and that river
goes all the way down to Connac. This is the
river that just passed down the Chatau right here, okay,
because all the way to so they took that river,
they came down and then they saw that we're making wine.
So they decided to trade this wine. So thirteenth century
(26:03):
the wine trade started in Europe, and so they took
the wine here, they break it back to Holland. But
by then we're not putting any sulfire, so anything to
keep the wine steady as we do today, like the
organic ones that were the frenky ones that were today,
that wasn't with the one that we're drinking back then.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
So by the time it got back to Horland, it wasn't.
Speaker 6 (26:22):
As good as it was the bright What a we're
gonna do with that much French wine. So they decided
to distill it. Because they were already making Geneva, which
is the grandfather of the gym, so they knew how
to distill. So they decided to distill this wine with
the idea that by distilling this wine, they'll get a
concentration of aromas that we give them kind of like
the sense of the wine, and then top it with
(26:44):
water and they would drink it like this to get
the wine back.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
It didn't work out this way.
Speaker 6 (26:49):
It just created a whole new flavor, a whole new
product that they were calling brand Winge, which means in
Dutch burnt wine because to distill they were burning the wine.
It was turning into him and became a liquid again
and they were just drinking with water and it was
a fantastic drink.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Right.
Speaker 6 (27:09):
British people are like, we love what you're guys doing
with the French one up in Holland. We cannot pronounce
it brand wins, so let's just rename it brandy.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
That's how the world brandy came to life. Wow.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
So brandy was originally invented in Holland by them messing
up transporting the wine from France.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Insane history happened by accidents, yo. Some of the greatest
things in life happened by accident. That's what you already know.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Some of the greatest joys we enjoying life happened by accident,
for sure. So that's that's an amazing story. And I
know they call it brandy because like they say, all
brandy is Connak, but all Cognac came brandy.
Speaker 6 (27:54):
I'm saying, my brother, you got it wrong. All cognacs
have brandy, but not all brand These are Connak. So yeah,
I knew the slogan. I just had a bagward it.
Because so the first alcohol that got the name brandy
was the beginning of cognac. And uh, now brandy is
the world that we use for any fruit distillate, which
(28:16):
is what you have apple brandy, pit brandy, cherry brandy,
all those tyff of brandy. When you use a fruit,
you can collect a brandy. Now to be cognac you
have to be made in the region of connect grapes
here the grapes are all around.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
The city, yes, everywhere.
Speaker 6 (28:31):
And so those that kept on coming to friends just
getting that much wine, shipping back to holland distilling it,
and that was like, areer trendy Northern Europe way to drink?
And at one point somebody idea, it was like, why
do we keep going to Connect to take that much wine?
And we go all the way up to a land
with distiller and we have that much that detail of
distiller because you lose so much in distillation. And so
(28:53):
somebody that I need to bring the still in cognac.
And so now French people started to find out, oh,
that's what you've been doing with our because they were
just selling training the white They had no idea what
I was happening in there, and so they got into
the process. So they were seeing that the dish were
using like a specific steel, the stilling. Once drink it
with water and the things that when you put the
(29:13):
one into the distinction process, it comes out as clear
as water, like a vodka gin like, that's clear.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
This is why you need the Kolyak generalmen which come
to the chateau will share the whole thing, that's right.
Speaker 6 (29:26):
And so when they brought the still in in France,
people started to the French people started to understand what
they were doing, and they got involved in the process
and they added a layer of complexity by double stilling,
so that will raise the ABV and give you something
like more pure. And that was the very beginning of conjunct.
So now again the dish keep on trading the liquids.
(29:48):
So this liquid, now that I was this still in Cognac,
was put into cask because that's what's the only way
you could travel, you could shift things. So they put
the liquid into cask. And now they go back to
Holland they opened the cast the lique with brown. So
that's when we started to figure out that, oh, we
can age it and it gets better and better, and
then the first connect houses came because again like when
they were distilling it in the in the in land,
(30:10):
they were just getting the distillate and tried with water,
so everything was clear. And now the liquid was sitting
into the cast for several months or years and then
it got brown and okay, because of the exchange of
the liquid with the wood.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
We have barrels that's in this castle older than our country.
Oh yeah, we do.
Speaker 6 (30:30):
I know, I've seen older than the country. Now we
have the castle is definitely older than the country. We
started making cognact Like the very first connect house was
created in sixteen nineteen, so America was was already around
the constitution, wasn't there.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
We celebrated two hundred and fifty years about sixteen nineteen.
Well we're about to celebrate in four years the one hundred,
the one thousand years.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
I know, I know four more years when we build
this castle in ten thirty, ten thirty insane.
Speaker 6 (31:04):
So that's the the and that's part of the French
history because I'm jumping back into Konuk in a minute,
but this castle is the history of France.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Is the history of Cognac is the history of French running.
The French Renaissance was born here.
Speaker 6 (31:17):
Discastle was built in ten thirty. It became the royal
castle of Knack in fourteen ninety four, when France is
the first.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
The King of France was born in the room just
before behind them, that's right.
Speaker 6 (31:30):
And the history history, history, history, fourteen ninety four history.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
So she started scared teaching this.
Speaker 6 (31:39):
I mean I got I had to come here to
learn about it, like I didn't go to school to
the ground.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
That's right. Even in the history books, I learned what
the first.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
I didn't know about the Cognac neither until I came here,
until I met you, and then we did the tour.
That's why I needed you to enlighten the people or
what they drinking, what they enjoyed, because they don't understand
the making of vs O P like vs O P
XO like.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Tell them the age difference. It takes five years the
age vs O P it takes so basically cognac.
Speaker 6 (32:11):
The process to make cognac is you take grapes that
must be grown around a specific perimeter around the town
of Conjure.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
You take those grapes. You have them, but like mid September,
you press them.
Speaker 6 (32:24):
It gives you a juice. You let this juice ferments
or you're at some use. It gives you a wine,
a one that you cannot really enjoy, is not a
drinkable wine. So then you distill it, but you will
distill it two times. So we have a specific like
alumic char put steam ad a fully out of copper,
and this has a way to kind of like burn
with like an open fire fire. It burns the wine.
(32:47):
The one s turns into steam. Steam goes into the
swan neck. We're gonna put a picture of the.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Stealing machine. Yes I know, we got that will help.
We're gonna show them some footage of it. And then
you have like the this liquid.
Speaker 6 (33:02):
You put your wine as about twelve person a BV
into this almbic or still. The first distillation will give
you a liquid that we call boui that is about
thirty percent ABV.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
That's what the Ditch used to drink with water. That's
the first distiller.
Speaker 6 (33:16):
Then the French came in and added you take that
boui and you put it back into the distillation.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Fours around and then give you.
Speaker 6 (33:24):
The OVV means water of life because you know, all
the alcohols were created at the beginning with the sense
of curing disease and water of life like drink a.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Beer and you know it had.
Speaker 6 (33:40):
They created like wine and all that. The cure he
cured does with moderation, always with moderation, but sure cured.
But so you have this od V that then we're
going to cask for several years minimum two years to
(34:00):
be able to have the label cognak.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
That's right.
Speaker 6 (34:03):
And the thing is your row material is grapes, and
every year the grapes change the same way your a
vintages in wine. How do you achieve consistency consistency in cognac.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
With your row material always changing?
Speaker 6 (34:22):
Because if you like this really nice Petrius Chatau patrits,
I know you like the good border one chattercuse of
twenty twelve. The twenty fifteen is different, and that's what
you like in ones because there's different ways of enjoying
it because of the way the climate impact the grapes.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
I'm a friend, I'm a sern. All of this cognac,
the King Karnak.
Speaker 6 (34:44):
Is consistency, yes, but how do you achieve consistency when
your ro material is always changing years after years. They
came up with the idea of blending different years together.
So now we get into the subject. We are three
main categories in cognac. Where VARs that means very special.
That would mean that the youngest other v inside the
(35:05):
barrel a spenime of two years.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
That's the bare minimum. Then you got vs. We don't
want that. We at that, we don't want that.
Speaker 6 (35:14):
You want there, we got VSOP very superior, all Paine
that means the youngest perdemen of four years and there
so extra al it's a minimum.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Of ten years and that's for every connac houses.
Speaker 6 (35:27):
So we have this those rules that are regulated by
the bn i C Bureau Nasonal Anti professional Cognac is
basically the office that rules and regulates everything when it
comes to connec. Knak is one, if not the most
regulated spirit in the world. There is so many rules
that you have to follow to create cognac that that
is really hard to make a bad cognac. I mean,
(35:48):
like you have so many rules that That's why I
love Konnak. It's a beautiful category, it's a beautiful spirit.
But of course, all of this the most because of
the way it's crafted, the way it's it's to kind
of change the vision on how you perceive Cognac. Brings
some modernity into Cognac. And that's what we've been doing.
Like at Chadot's Cognac. Again, that's a castle that was
built in ten thirty, but we started to make Connact
(36:11):
in those walls in seventeen ninety five. Again I was saying,
the first Connect house was created in sixteen nineteen, So
seventeen ninety five we already knew what was cognact, how
was Connect performing what you need to get the good Cognacs.
So there's this guy bout Hotel that wanted to create
his own Connect brand. He was looking for the right
place to make connact.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
And seventeen ninety five were like six years.
Speaker 6 (36:33):
After the French Revolution, no more kings, right, so we're
like what to do with all those castles? And they
put dis castle up to auction and this one Mension
visited the castle and bought it for one purpose to create.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
This Connact brand.
Speaker 6 (36:46):
Because the thing, the particularity of this castle, we have
like ten feet wide walls and the fish right.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
In the Champrivier.
Speaker 6 (36:53):
I mean the river is right here, right there, and
so this gives us like two different climates.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
We take that amsterday, yeah, the river and go all
the way up to the coast with the trade trip.
They was trading that yah yeah that yah yah for
that win yo. So my thing is right. We enjoyed
(37:23):
Cognak for so many years. A lot of people enjoyed
this straight.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Like what I love about what we created with do
say we was able to blend what people enjoy straight
and then what others enjoying that cosmopole cocktails Like you
would say, you know you invented the blend of both
here in France when people weren't doing that.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
What was your drive and your vision behind?
Speaker 6 (37:49):
So that's what that's I've been working with you for
seven years now, but I've been in the hospitality for
twenty years as well for my career.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
I love doing this this, I love this industry.
Speaker 6 (37:58):
And uh and I noticed in my bat in a
carrier that Cognac wasn't really using cocktails.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
I'm like in bars you.
Speaker 6 (38:04):
Could see like fifteen thee Killers, twenty whiskeys. I don't
know how many vodcasts because vodcast was really hardly still
super super boom and and you know, I was looking
to Cornac because I just had an epiphany when I
was living in London, when I was like twenty and
the things I had to be in London to discover Corgnac.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
That's a friend spirit.
Speaker 6 (38:24):
And then I said my about in the career, and
I noticed Connac wasn't using cocktails, wasn't using bars, and
so in every bar that I worked, I pushed for
Cornach cocktails because with this epiphany, I called at the
rat At Too moment, I had a really high cognac.
I was working in a restaurant and the bar manager
like after a dinner gave me like a massive glass
of cognac and I could sip on it and I
(38:46):
you know, like in Rata Too, when that piece of cheese,
close the eyes, the fire works.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
That's what happened to me.
Speaker 6 (38:52):
I was twenty years old. In France, you're allowed to
drink from eighteen. Okay, wow, so I was twenty years old.
I wasn't in the age and I had this this
moments and then I came back to France and realized
cognac wasn't really celebrated. So I started to push it
and alder Bards and I walked in Australia. I was
putting cocktaila with cognac on the menus. Then I came
back to France. Was part of the opinion of the
(39:12):
cocktail about focus on whiskeys. But while I was in
that bar, I was starting to discover like the other
French spirits Calvados, Armagnac, and I fell in love with those,
and so with a friend of mine Omar, were opened
the Sindica in twenty fourteen, which was the very first
and only cocktail in the world using only French alcohol,
in order to showcase the craft that we're in friends
to be proud of our liqueurs, because the thing is
(39:33):
like ninety eight person of cognac is exported in France.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
We don't drink cognac. I know that. That's when I
tell people that that yo, when you come back think
about it.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
I'm in Paris. I called you like, yo, bro, there's
no way I can find a bat or do say.
It's insane. They don't sell it anywhere, and we have
to change that because it is not like the French
don't love collyac, but I don't stay why they don't sell,
they don't know much about it.
Speaker 6 (39:58):
In a way that the for us, it's our grandpa's
spirits because commonly in France we've been enjoying cognac all
those other leaks at the end of the meal that
just needs traits.
Speaker 3 (40:12):
So that's the vision that we have when it comes
to Cognac.
Speaker 6 (40:14):
The thing in America, Cognac we forgot about this, but
Cognak was one of the most used spirits at the
beginning of the cocktail culture in eighteen fifties, when cocktails
were created in the Orleans or somewhere else in America,
Cognac was the most readily available spirit and a lot
of classic cocktails were created first with cognac and then
(40:37):
on to other brands or the categories. And we forgot
about that because of two big moments within the world.
So again the cocktail errus are in eighteen fifties in America,
the Sasaraq was one of the first cocktail created with cognac.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
It was greated with cognak.
Speaker 6 (40:56):
The brandy Crust, created in the Audians was the first
cocktail with lemon juice in it, and so this inspired
bartonders to open order to create other recipes using fresh
and fresh juices.
Speaker 3 (41:09):
And you see that from the Brandy crystal. So that
was a guy called Joseph somethin.
Speaker 6 (41:12):
He had a bar called Jewel of the South in
New Orleans, and he created Brandy Kreuszler to be like
the most sophisticate drink back then. So there was that
cognac orangely care marskin o li care lemon juice and
shaken a bit of soda, nice sugar rim and a
big pill of lemon. And that was like the world
cocktail of the the era, okay, and everybody was like
(41:34):
really raving by that cocktail, and Bartonders started to look
into this, Okay, this is a bit of like too
much work, so let's just kind of like dialing it down,
and they created the Brandy Daisy. Eighteen seventy six was
the first time there was a mention of the brandy Daisy,
which was cognac, orangely care lemon juice and soda water,
really refreshing drink. And then came the whiskey daisy, rem
daisy Jean daisy. But if you look at the way
(41:56):
brandy daisy is made in eighteen seventies, it was basically,
the Sidecar, which is the most known cocktail with cognac,
is a result is a daisy in a way, how
do you say, Margarita, Oh, how do you say daisy
in Spanish? Margarida, Margarida is a daisy. What I'm doing
right now is you say, is really reconnect h everybody
(42:19):
about like the mixability of the fact that cognach has
always been used in cocktails.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
But like there was the film Crisis.
Speaker 6 (42:26):
It's a it's an e pyramid that destroyed all the
vineyards in Ferns and Europe, so we couldn't make any
more wine, so we couldn't make any more cognact, so
butnot had to sove recipes to keep the recipe alive,
but not putting their hand on connact. Then they put whiskey,
they put rum and uh and then the prohibsion happen
in America. So another way, like Connact stepped back from
being the filth thought product in cocktails. But the thing
(42:48):
what I love is do say is that we are
creating in the chateau as you said, as you were
saying like it is a modern Connack, it is a
connect to make cocktail whiz because We've been making can
Cognact since seventeen ninety five when we created and twelve.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
We created it knowing how people drink today.
Speaker 6 (43:07):
So they still love to sleep on the kangnak, but
they love to mix it too, That's right, which is
why we were threat to the vsop to have again
four years old, to have a corner that has a
lot of body that can be sipping for any cognac matter.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
And then there has a lot of bodies that shine
through any cocktails anything. So really drinking, do say water
right over there? Do say apple juice right now?
Speaker 6 (43:28):
I'm just having the same weather the dish were drinking
like this brand Winge was that the wine is tilled
with water.
Speaker 3 (43:36):
I'm just having douicy and clear water.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Still what I do say with apple juice or a
little splash of cocar colon, give it that pop.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
But you know we're gonna say anything.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
We're gonna have the deal. Several coats. We gotta make
the deal. Summer cocktails, for sure, we're gonna have that.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
That that's that mass.
Speaker 6 (43:53):
So this summer for me was again inspired by the
daisy how to bring modernity, so honoring the past with
the day is he but creating a more than coctain
inspired by you?
Speaker 3 (44:03):
Right? Yeah, you asked me for You're like, yo, what's
the favorite fruits? What's this? What's flavors? You're like a
a and then you came up with something. I'm time.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
I've been getting calls about it all summer, every event,
people like Yo, they told me believe you had.
Speaker 3 (44:15):
Something to do with the did summer drink that drink fire.
Speaker 6 (44:19):
It's fling my hands on that recipe we're gonna have
on a tonight or tomorrow during this show.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
That's a fact, is that because you gotta put that
the care uh because in love that exotic notes. You know,
my first trip to Hawaii changed my life. I'm a
guava man now.
Speaker 6 (44:38):
Friendly glover man, a flemon And of course you're like
you so tell a psico.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
That's right. You gotta put the bubbles man, Yo, Sally Man,
I appreciate you. You already know.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
Du say brand is what it is because the guys
like you, and I want everybody to understand and know
when they come down to mix and a drink.
Speaker 3 (44:57):
This guy got all the recipes.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
We gotta somehow get the recipes out where we need
to give it to the people.
Speaker 3 (45:04):
You know what I'm saying, Like I have the it's
like a dictionary book.
Speaker 1 (45:07):
I don't know you created this. No, that was before
my time, okay, but I know some of your cocktails is.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
In this book.
Speaker 6 (45:13):
They're on the website. But we are resigning the website,
so take on dot com.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
Later in the year. We're gonna have a whole new website.
And so people gotta understand.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
Man, trust me, change your margaritas, your pinic colladers.
Speaker 3 (45:27):
Your side cars. Put that dude say in there and
change your life. It works in every cocktail. Trying the
Exposo Martini.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
Oh my Jesus right express, Oh my Jesus, man, that's
it tastes like it should be illegal.
Speaker 6 (45:44):
Man, I had one with Exo. We gotta try an
ex expos On Martini phenomena.
Speaker 3 (45:49):
We an't want. I mean like X. It's mixable too.
It is a higher sq our Exo is ten to
twenty years with a fifteen years average. It is delicious.
You can mix it, can you got me like?
Speaker 5 (46:03):
I like it.
Speaker 3 (46:04):
I like it on the rocks, but I also like
it in the good cocktail. That's right.
Speaker 6 (46:07):
But if you want to pay some fruits, some lemon.
Just the VSLB was created for that, so happened with it?
Anything work with I'm telling you really.
Speaker 3 (46:14):
Anything, trust anything magnificant. My brother, my brother, brother. Come on, man,
come on man, anytime you is your house. Did you
tell them that tomorrow you pay for me in the chateau? Yeah?
They know. Tomorrow is the performance at the chateau. They
know this is what we do the first time in
(46:35):
the history of the Castle of Cognac. Hip hop. Hip
hop is gonna be played and pay form. I'm gonna
I'm gonna be honest. The king rolling over in his grave,
he'll be had all of us. Then it'll be dancing
on your head, bro, Definitely. They hang a hand on
the on the on the bridge. Love my brother, check
(46:59):
my guy. I appreciate you. Come on, man, let's go.
You know what it is.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
Man, got my guy Pools back in the building out here, man,
but I ain't gonna front you. Was acting a little
shook like it's your first time, like you just met
a chick.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
I just had to do. Say with water, do say
with pineapple, Do say with soda, Do say with apple juice?
You activate with everything, Do say over everybody you act that.
I I had to. I had to get my little
bit of sip arm to understand what a wedding. I'm ready.
I'm ready right now, I'm feeling great. I'm out here
in Cognac, France for the music festival.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
Let these guys know, though, Man, they talking out there reckless.
Tell them we're about to get.
Speaker 3 (47:39):
On their yo.
Speaker 2 (47:40):
We don't ever talk reckless over here, though.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
Tell them listen. Let them know pools were about to
get on that culture every day. They want them topics.
They want us to talk about them topics.
Speaker 3 (47:53):
They want to know why be on the pod.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
There's so much to talk about. They want to compare.
Speaker 3 (47:57):
They want to know why Jane been on.
Speaker 2 (47:59):
Compare us to GQ, which is an honor, thank you,
because I don't even know how I belong in the
conversation that there's there's you know, there's a whole nother
level to the game. When I saw that, I said, Wow,
they compared us to g Q.
Speaker 3 (48:15):
Thank you. I like that.
Speaker 2 (48:21):
I've been around some of the best writer.
Speaker 3 (48:23):
You rubbing off some of the best writer the golden
pan too much in the studio with the writer some
of the.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
Best, brilliant people in the industry. So I've been able
to sit and be a fly on the wall in
a lot of rooms that I didn't belonging and shout
out to you for that, like a lot of different
situations like the janitor, like the janitor in the room,
like I'm just soaking everything in. And I flied a
lot of that in my life. What I did, you
know my other endeavors to that because I'm not a
(48:49):
music person, but I learned through you people like your
you know, bank shout out bank people. Black rob was
originally my my family.
Speaker 3 (49:00):
I'm saying. So what I'm saying that's where I met
the poons with black I'm.
Speaker 2 (49:04):
A fan, bro, I'm a fan of hip hop. I'm
a fan of of the culture. So I don't know
a lot of people call me a culture vulture because
of my skin. No, so how to get a tann
cognac with that?
Speaker 3 (49:18):
It's my black white my so I can get invited
to the barbecue you've been.
Speaker 1 (49:21):
At the y I'm Silian, Yo, Yo chill. I took
this dude to a soul food spot in Brooklyn. Yo,
what was the soul food spot? We went to a
Brooklyn They're gonna kill.
Speaker 3 (49:36):
The critic of the name. If I know, Oh my god,
he's a food chancer.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
It was a food chase.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (49:40):
I took them the food chases and front I took
it to a spot. We went to New Orleans.
Speaker 1 (49:46):
Yo.
Speaker 3 (49:46):
This guy about Yo, Lizzy Pooso.
Speaker 2 (49:49):
I showed my roots.
Speaker 1 (49:50):
He might be wearing Champion hoodies and Biscuits sweat pants
at night where he's.
Speaker 3 (49:54):
Not with me. Show my roots.
Speaker 2 (49:56):
I show my roots. My family is originally from Corleon
in Naples, so southern.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
You see this man in the play construction had jeans.
Just let him be on his way. He going to
the Soulfu restaurant.
Speaker 2 (50:09):
Happens stop it. Thanks to Bleak, I got invited to
the barbecue. But that being said, I'm better at basketball
than Bleak. Never I could jump higher than Bleak.
Speaker 3 (50:18):
White man can't chime. White man can't jump. We've seen
the movie.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Listen, your man, cheech will tell you what cheach your
fans production the best shooting.
Speaker 3 (50:26):
The Minigans can't play basketball, the.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
Best shooters in France, But Tommy Pouh's are the best
shooter in New Jersey. Al Harrington everybody brings bring it, Tommy,
bring it. Everybody listen that that's arcade games, video games,
whatever games.
Speaker 1 (50:42):
Schwartz, I'm your guy, he said, listen sports any video games.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
Yeah, virgin has.
Speaker 3 (50:50):
Four three two one original. Anything you want to smoke called.
Speaker 2 (50:54):
Game boy, saying listen, I come from up game Q.
Riverside Church he has Vita coach Ernie Lorch. Google him, Ernie.
Speaker 3 (51:03):
Lorch, dumb wrestling.
Speaker 2 (51:05):
Stop it, stop it. Riverside Church Uptown was where it started.
Speaker 3 (51:10):
So smoke anything that take. That's competition.
Speaker 7 (51:14):
Google that baseball, dodge ball, George Washington, douicide, stop it.
Coca Livia to say, with water, hot peas and butter
to stay with water.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
Whatever they want to back second y, no, listen, stop
and stop it.
Speaker 3 (51:34):
Better Frisby like I want to bad way, a bad way.
I play what they used to say.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
Well, sound like that. It sounds like a Brooklyn versus
Harlem rivalry. And I'm on the bridge in northern New Jersey.
Speaker 3 (51:47):
We brought it back. Now That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (51:48):
What they want better Calico Vision Now listen, got all
the games. I'm all want to go on the record
man MIT's pac Man, I can pack.
Speaker 2 (51:56):
I want to go on the record for competitive, competitive.
Speaker 3 (52:00):
Tari and six hundred. You don't know about that.
Speaker 2 (52:04):
You're like you sound like rabbit, you sound like something
champs meo, geo. Let me talk for a second. Let
me talk for a second. Can I talk for a second.
In competitive sports, right when you grew up in Brooklyn
and you play anything from bean bags to shuffle boards
to basketball, anything competitive, even against you go against the
(52:27):
Brooklyn Cat, the most ship in the world.
Speaker 3 (52:31):
A lot of them will back it up.
Speaker 2 (52:33):
But this guy, Marcy the.
Speaker 3 (52:37):
Battery cooking pancakes.
Speaker 2 (52:38):
Hold on, you're talking a lot on your own show, Sally.
Thanks for the duce and water you guy.
Speaker 3 (52:45):
Blee, just letting him know we competitive everything. I hate
him so much.
Speaker 2 (52:51):
I hate him so much that I cleaned grind.
Speaker 7 (52:53):
Back flips, front flips, lds, Rodney Davis, ever.
Speaker 3 (52:57):
They want to do.
Speaker 2 (52:58):
We combat get the danger doing the triple Indy on
the Willian top backboard in Dudes, stop it, stop it,
bro He's Brooklyn, dudes, man. Let me tell you, like
I I'm from north He's not gonna stop you up.
Speaker 3 (53:13):
Put the quarter water in the tire motorcycle.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
I consider myself from New Jersey, but I'm really an uptown.
Speaker 3 (53:19):
Dude, even walk In can't battle me.
Speaker 2 (53:22):
These dudes from Brooklyn, they spit and they talk more
than anybody.
Speaker 1 (53:27):
Just you.
Speaker 3 (53:28):
You started and you said competition. So I just wanted
to let it know.
Speaker 2 (53:30):
It's an ebony and you want to battle rivalry right now?
Week of bat Larry Bird versus Maddie Johnson. You heard
all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (53:38):
We know Bird versus very that verse and a lot
of difference, that a lot of.
Speaker 2 (53:43):
Pity and Michael Jackson, he said, yes, right, I'll take
Paul lccartney.
Speaker 3 (53:47):
I got you.
Speaker 2 (53:49):
You can't moon walk on nothing.
Speaker 3 (53:50):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (53:52):
WoT in stare contaest?
Speaker 2 (53:56):
You saying cold water? You heard I was put on
by the locals.
Speaker 3 (54:00):
They want to all wrestle, dumb wrestle.
Speaker 2 (54:02):
I said that one listen camera, whatever they want to do, Yo,
that's what production I want.
Speaker 3 (54:08):
We all that type of Sullivan's drinking.
Speaker 2 (54:11):
Hold on, hold on a second. I gotta shush you.
Speaker 3 (54:15):
You shish me. I have to.
Speaker 2 (54:18):
I'm the only one that can do that.
Speaker 1 (54:21):
Yo.
Speaker 3 (54:23):
What you're trying to shih What you shished me to say?
After show? You what you shished me after the show?
Say what you sh to say.
Speaker 2 (54:31):
Sullivan taught me about saying cold water. It is a
fucking vibe. It's a movement.
Speaker 3 (54:38):
Luck you said that from Daisy to jay Z.
Speaker 2 (54:43):
So the thirty year reunion is real.
Speaker 3 (54:46):
You just gotta you just got a reasonable doubt.
Speaker 1 (54:49):
Thy years later after sheet of paper was ripped out
of the notebook and told me to change my life,
and god damn has it changed my life.
Speaker 3 (54:57):
I wouldn't be here without.
Speaker 2 (54:58):
That piece of Backwise, you no what it is?
Speaker 3 (55:00):
Do you say? Mafia live in Kojak.
Speaker 2 (55:03):
Friends, shout out King francois.
Speaker 3 (55:05):
Live that Shatak.
Speaker 2 (55:07):
Without him, this is possible.
Speaker 3 (55:09):
And with my man Pooso, we ready to battle anything
you say.
Speaker 2 (55:12):
Mafia you're even I'm up. I'm out of here.
Speaker 3 (55:15):
What they what they do? What white people they be doing?
Games like stuff like that right doing potato? Say want
to ebony and ivory and what they want to do? Limbo?
Speaker 2 (55:30):
We want to there's no limbo lower now we want ebony,
we want ivory, we want they want.
Speaker 3 (55:39):
And the mocker rain.
Speaker 2 (55:40):
This is Dominican Bleak sounding off Live. You heard.
Speaker 3 (55:49):
Shot Poozo Tommy Vegan.
Speaker 5 (55:58):
For more podcasts from iHeart Ready, visit iHeartRadio app, Apple
podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows at
and you can follow me on any social media platform
under the name Memphis Bleach.
Speaker 3 (56:10):
You see anybody fraud in, flag him
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