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December 12, 2022 16 mins

Karlous and Chico sit down with the folks behind Tones of Melanin (@tonesofmelanin), a clothing company that specializes in HBCU-apparel! 

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Any times. You're serious, man, everybody is playing say that
we don't have an agenda. We definitely have an agenda
to push today. The agenda is Black wealth and prosperity.
Uh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, yeah, yeah yeah.
You got some special guests in the building in all

(00:34):
the way man, And and this is very special because
you know, the hbc U connection is one that I
am and very fond of. And we have some lovely
ladies from the illustrious Norfolk State University, you know what
I mean? And uh, we have I'm gonna say it right,
we got sunny jazz as in my home girl gravy

(00:55):
right right, that's gravy. Lord black markets, bring your black money,
please perform us of what you lovely ladies are here for.
What do you guys do? We're tones of melanin. Um,

(01:16):
we're appair of company that focus is strictly on hbc U.
S um. Our goal is just to to amplify hbc USE.
Like everybody know about the main ones. You're Howard, You're Hampton,
your more House, Jackson family, but there's a hundred and seven.
Um they need to be amplified as well. And our
kids need to be going there. We want to keep

(01:36):
the doors open. We do it through clothing all the way.
Now white clothing of all the different ways you can
do or white clothing. She designs everything, so the master
line behind it all, like she sees the vision. What
we're you selling the bookstores does not cater to our

(01:58):
demographic at all. So we want to look fly in
our school. We walk a billboard. How did y'all link
up and make this happen? That's crazy? So everything is her,
literally everything is her. She just is in good position
to bring people on board to help amplify everything. I

(02:21):
remember we were sitting on campus nor State University in
the Towers, so anybody, no, nobody State the Towers is
like everybody towers, yeah, the infamous freshman building the high rises.
But we was and she just was like she already
had like um, Christian apparel in and other different little things,
so we should like, yo, we really need to do
something for hbc US that strictly for us, like and

(02:42):
like Raven had mentioned earlier, like you we want to
be in lit stuff like you know what I'm saying,
Like we go to ABC campuses. Fashion is a huge thing,
Like we want to look swaggy. We don't want to
pay forty dollars for a T shirt that just says
your school that's purple. In your school colors are green
and gold. So it was just really like just picturing
the idea and she literally literally from there in the top,

(03:03):
she just started going from there. We all need friends
like her all the way, especially at HBCU. That's all boy.
You come up with a good hustle like that, we
are in the game. We ain't gotta wait till winsday Chicken.
Everyday Chicken wins. And no question, like one of the

(03:24):
things like I went to Winston, Southern State. What you
guys have up there? You got South Carolina State right there. Um, like,
how did you guys go about getting a license and
to be able to make this stuff? Because you know,
there's so many different HBCUs and I'm sure coming from
your HBCU, I would assume that it would probably be
the easiest to get it from yours. But what people
don't know is when you go to a school for

(03:46):
some reason, they treat you like you didn't go there.
And then the weirdest thing, Yeah, it's like you know
what I mean, they just look at you differently. So
did you get it from your school first or did
you go elsewhere in your school? Came around? I did
it completely wrong, like I just I bucked on it.
I did it without a license, Like I was like
I'm gonna make it, y'all just figured out later, like

(04:07):
I'll figure out. And I got popped. And I got
When I got popped, I had had a nice little
car amount to get my license. Yeah, a nice little
quelle usual to get my license. So I paid the
fee and then um, I applied to get licensing for
uh forty different schools. It's a third party company that
that deals with all the paperwork. So it's literally just
me filling out the application, doing the due diligence, and

(04:28):
waiting from them to say yes or no if we
can make the stuff. Okay, so you got did you
get forty off? It took a little time, like I
got like twenty and it was like five came in
another five, but like within a year I had forty. Okay,
So do you guys go to the have you been
to any of the schools? Yeah, this is our first

(04:49):
our first home coming. Get did our first home come
into our voo? It's nobody but God. To be completely honest,
like we have been able to pop up on these
campuses and they have enjoyed just as much as we
have meeting. Meeting y'all. It's so crazy, like, oh yeah,

(05:13):
I saw y'all. They're coming up to the table saying,
I'm like, oh, hey, cousin, that's gonna be her second everything. Yeah.
So our first home coming that we did was Virginia
State State. But it's all right, it's a rivalry. There's

(05:36):
a state. Yeah, we big state. They go, we are
received there well, of course, of course they are cousins.
At the end of the day, you see us together.
Were so many It's what is eleven in North Carolina alone?
You know, you know you got Norfolk State, you got

(05:58):
Virginia State, you got you know what I mean. There's
so many different ones, so of of bus as though
you guys all went to an HBCU. When you go
to these different schools and you see the cultures the
same everywhere, as it shocking. This is surprising too, it is,
but it isn't what makes you feel like it isn't. Yeah,
I feel like it's cultural thing that makes you know

(06:20):
wherever you are similar and then different at the same thing.
People feel like all right, for example, like if you
if you go to Howard, You're gonna hear a lot
more of go goal, a lot more things that are
natural to there. Are you talking about just that part
of the actually student body? But when you on campus,

(06:42):
like you got different students too, because some some schools
they got money, the kids parents, they got money, Like
more of them. Did you go to everybody had money?
But was that happened? Yeah, the kids filling up in it.
I'm like I had a hunt addressed tea, Like the
dude pop out a black card to payper So I'm like,

(07:03):
you gotta you like eighteen what youre doing with a
black card? But that's that's one of one of a
hundred and six where they carried yourself though it's they
yeah all the way. So do you feel like they
have you guys been a happy Yeah? We just did
ye last week. How did you like that experienced? It
was different? It was good, Like it was very different.

(07:23):
Like because I'm from North North from State, I know
how home company is. It's it's it's your typical Yeah, yeah,
it's turned. Everything is turned. Nobody where you're going turn
you got people some nutcrackers, like it's turned handed is
more like, are people play some jazz chill? It's love though,
but no, it was a good but like they had

(07:44):
like had in different places. So like jazz over here,
but the younger studits over there turning up. It was
really jazz. Oh yeah, blu role was playing that. But
black people are not monolithic, Like we can be multiple things.
You can listen, you can, it don't matter. That's suppose
you black. Don't mean that you're supposed to add this way.
Listen to that at like we're not We're not put

(08:07):
into a box. And it's for everybody. And you know
I'm saying especially like home coming like Saturdays for everybody.
You got the kids outside, you got current students, you
got alarm, you got cousins, local, the locals. Yeah, that's
who really turned the home coming up. The people who
didn't even go to the school didn't. Yeah, they be
the most excited, may be the most most of the

(08:30):
apparel that you guys have made, is there a piece
that you guys will like make yours. You're sent a
piece of your product? What would that be our reversible jacket? Um,
it's a two on one. You can flip it, so
it's two jackets in one and I need that. Yeah yeah, Jackson,

(08:51):
you got the blue one? Yeah yeah, all the way
to outfits. Put a price on one. That's what you
want to do all the way. So where do you
guys see it going? Where do you want it to be?
Do you want it to be something that is sold
in stores? Like we can see pennies and you know
what I mean, you guys are business. We're wearing gig

(09:13):
sporting goods. Were in delt Fanatic and we're in I
know which one of your like me, I think we're
over a hundred stores right now and we're in I
want to say, twenty bookstores on campus, on campus and

(09:34):
purchase all stuff. We're in the middle of getting order
out now for these books stories. So if it's definitely
been a learning process, that was gonna be my next question,
what is the learning curve been like in the merle
and none of us know like it's no Blue Frid
It's not like I have a mentor or anything like
we figured it out day by day holding each other's hands.

(09:56):
Though you know what I'm saying, Like it's I think
this is like the moment of success because it's like
you can't it's a pivotal moment success because you can't
necessarily one see yourself all the way. That's what I'm saying.
We feel it a little by little, piece by piece,
year by year. However, we still struggle, like we still
go through our hard times. We still talk about business
of business on the way here, like something that had

(10:18):
nothing to do with this platform, That's what I'm saying.
So it's just that we just have to keep the
faith and just know it. As long as we're holding
each other down and we're being lloyed to each other,
you know what I'm saying, we ain't. Nobody is thinking nothing,
no weird type of energy that we're gonna see each
other to the top. So I think right now we're
just in that we're in the tunnel. We see maybe
a peek of flipper of light, but we're still scared.
But we're still walking though it's so scary, y'all, Like, yea,

(10:42):
you have nothing to be scared of. You want God
got us exactly, Look went from the town was from
the I was the dicks. That's what they dick sporting good.

(11:07):
But no, seriously, as as black women, like, I know
you have a responsibility to the HBCU culture, but you know,
as black women who went to HBCUs like, do you guys,
you know, accentuate that and when you go to these
campuses and and you know, shine a light on the
young black women that are currently in school. I just
recently went back to Wins the Seventh State during my

(11:29):
homecoming and talk to the mass communications department where I
graduated out of. I was communications major, and I sold
One of the things that I saw is that they
are competing in the world's funeral. I'm they competing with
something that we never I never had to compete with.
I graduated in two thousand and eight. I didn't have
to compete with social media and everybody's I like, so
now you're under so much pressure. So for them to

(11:50):
be able to see black women making like what is
your message that you give when you on these campuses,
I would say it starts before then. It's getting them
kids in school first, Like, hey, we've come out of
Like we went to an h b c U. So
if we came out and we did it, you can
do the same thing. Because the narrative for years like
it's just now shifting. Before it was like if you
went to HBCU, it was like less than like you went.

(12:12):
But now it's like, look how many successful people who
have come out of an HBCU, Like exactly as we're
making it a common thing. So I think it starts there.
But once we're getting there, like we all know we've
all been poor eating noodles. We every everything that you
go through came we didn't been. And that's that's what
I mean about the culture culture of HBCU. Like me

(12:35):
and my roommate got into an argument over a pack
of noodle season in my freshman was serious to go
to the calf without you don't lose your smart car.
I mean, it was just different. So it's like to
see you guys, what you guys are doing. I have
a you know, a very special place in my heart

(12:57):
for HBCUs. We didn't been to lost, didn't go to one.
But now I went to a historically black community college.
We went to an historically black community college. We go
we understand the culture, Like we didn't been to schools
like what was that school? We went to a Memphis
lo where they had us riding around on the golf
cart going in the and the camp. We had to
go to dorms and get all the state didn't believe

(13:19):
we were coming. So we had to go to every
dorm and like knock on all the doors and like
we're here, get ready to the show started and everything.
That that's something that we can do amongst each other
that a lot of people don't see, and that we
use our platform to be able to shine light on

(13:41):
like this is something that we can not even infiltrate,
that we can come and be a part of no
matter where you went to school. That because at the
end of the day we are still the minority. And
no matter which one you went to, we arguing together
forth about you know who home coming to best of
which school the best, But at the end of the day,
it's only a hundred and seven of them and passing
everyone else. Yeah, we got to do a collab on

(14:03):
something we do. We're ready, please, we got we got.
We just did a hooded with the Morehouse. Yeah. Yeah.
And we did a collab with Claytons with the family.
He went to family. That's why we need that bad family.
You graduate, you know, we're gonna hit you'all online and

(14:23):
support and tones of melan all platforms O M E
L A and I am do. Y'all have like a
sound like a nineties are and exactly like Steve Harvey
gonna bring we have from no we have that's come

(14:51):
out with the thing that all the way. So y'all
have like a place where people can actually come outside
of going to the bookstores and going into Dix. Is
that like a tones and melon and brick and mortar. Yet,
we worked on it. We're praying on it. We're working
on it. You're praying on that. You're praying on it it. Yeah,
the prayer is gonna turn it to work. Get busy, Yeah,

(15:16):
I haven't. We're gonna come to the ground open yeah.
Yeah yeah. And oh man, you listen HBCU. I know
the type of ship to make for HBC skin. What
I'm talking about not just the clothes and you come
out with a note pad. Yeah, we were handing there
at that everything shoes string like mad, the raincoat with

(15:40):
big pockets and steal food at the cab and turn
the cameras off. What you're talking about, Like I said,
get in a little bit for you. We'll even put

(16:00):
the whole jacket in the micaway. Thank you, thank you all,
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Hosts And Creators

DC Young Fly

DC Young Fly

Karlous Miller

Karlous Miller

Chico Bean

Chico Bean

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