When Fashion Becomes Revolution with Lanny Smith

This week on TMI, Tamika Mallory dives deep into the heavy issues shaping our communities from the government’s shell game with education funding and the mass push of Black women out of the workforce, to the heartbreaking rise of domestic violence cases taking Black women’s lives.

Tamika keeps it all the way real about how unity is the only way forward in these turbulent times, and why we can’t just “talk” about the issues anymore it’s time for action. She also shares her thought of the day, calling out the silent crisis of Black women being killed in domestic violence situations and demanding the outrage and solutions our sisters deserve.

Then, we shift gears into an inspiring conversation with Lanny Smith, founder of Actively Black, the athleisure brand that’s more than fashion it’s a movement. From his journey as an NBA player to building a brand that invests back into Black communities, to creating fashion shows that are true cultural experiences featuring icons like Bernice King, Ruby Bridges, and more, Lanny breaks down why owning our culture and supporting Black-owned businesses is crucial for our future.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Tamika D. Mallory and it's.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Your boy, my son in general.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
We are your host of TMI.

Speaker 3 (00:05):
Tamika and my Son's Information, Truth, Motivation and Inspiration.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
New Name, New Energy. Hey family Isian Girl Tamika D.

Speaker 4 (00:16):
Mallory and you are tuned into the TMI show And
for today, I am holding down the set as in
my host chair by myself because my son is actually
in fashion week. He's in a show today for Daniel's
Leather and is unable to be with us, us little people.

(00:37):
We were at the TMI show, we say together, but
he the brother, has gone off to be in a
fashion show. And of course we are extremely proud of him.
It is amazing when people celebrate the culture. Having him
in the show today helps to elevate the cause for
social justice, the cause for just to lift the culture

(00:59):
up and make sure or that we stay connected to
the people.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Who are out here doing real work.

Speaker 4 (01:03):
Obviously, my son is also an entertainer, so he's a
raptivist self proclaim and you know, when you put the
activism and the rat together, you get adult brother who
deserves to be in this moment and in his glory
in the show. So I'm here holding down the fort
by myself. We do have a pre taped interview that

(01:26):
we're gonna be showing you all today, and so you
will still get an opportunity to hear from him. But
I'm gonna have to kick these segments off and talk
about things that are happening in this nation. And let
me just start off by saying, if you're not paying attention,
I don't know where you.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Are at this point.

Speaker 4 (01:44):
Everybody should have their eyes on the constant if you will,
onslaught of just terrible things that have been happening in
this country. I for one, have been more quiet than ever,
just kind of sitting with what I see every single

(02:06):
day and knowing that our response to all of this
is going to have to be strong. It's going to
have to be unified. I heard my system Monique Presley
say the other day that we're not all sure how
we're going to get through this moment, but what we
do know is that we're going to have to do
it together. And that's the only thing that we're sure about,

(02:30):
is that our unity is the only strategy for addressing
these very tumultuous times and also for us being able
to protect black people. I think that it's really becoming
more and more parent that there is a specific, very

(02:53):
particular attempt to dismantle our communities. And just recently I
was I posted about the monies that the Department of
Education have pulled back from what they call minority specialized

(03:17):
educational institutions, so in other words, programs and schools that
focus on particular groups of people. They have said that
they're going to pull money back from it. That was
announced on one day, It must have been throughout the
weekend I was seeing post about three hundred and fifty

(03:38):
million dollars that would be redirected away from from institutions
again that are focused specifically on particular minority groups. And
then I saw this week that the Trump administration has
redirected some funds from wherever and they're going to have

(04:00):
a major investment in HPCUS. And at first, when I
saw the initial Department of Education announcement about the three
hundred and fifty million dollars being pulled, I was like,
they mean black because you know, we're We're probably one
of the most prevalent groups that have had to have

(04:24):
schools and programs that are specifically designed to address our
issues that has been you know, a historic remedy for
correcting some of the what should I say it is
not just oppression, but the discrimination they you are, the

(04:47):
discrimination that has taken place with us as black folks,
as African Americans or Africans who will walk he into America,
who are traffic stolen, traffic and abused here on this continent.
We've had to have particular programs to focus on us,

(05:11):
especially here in America.

Speaker 5 (05:12):
Right.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
And so.

Speaker 4 (05:15):
When you when you know that and you see an
announcement saying that three hundred and fifty million dollars is
being pulled from minority focused institutions, of course to me
was very triggering, and I said, it's black people. But
then in the next few days you see that the

(05:37):
Trump administration is offering resource store, They're going to redirect
resources to HPCUS, and people were like, oh, you know, see,
you guys are wrong. They do care about black folks.
And I'm just thinking, Wow, we're living in a time

(05:57):
where it's really like a three card gang because what
you see happening is that and I'm specifically told that
the Hispanic focused or the Latino focused institutions and programs
are being cut and there's no funding that will be

(06:19):
offered into those programs that there's nothing that the administration
is planning to do specifically for them.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
But then for the black.

Speaker 4 (06:29):
Community, the HBCUs will receive xyz dollars and there's a
lot of people who are going to celebrate that.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
And of course, we.

Speaker 4 (06:37):
Want our HBCUs to continue to be funded and to
have the resources that they deserve. But a big part
of this three card Molly game, instead of ensuring that
everybody has the appropriate funding necessary to you know, to
succeed and to excel, there is a game that they

(06:59):
play where now they will be able to come back
and say, well, we did X thing XYZ thing for
the black community, and therefore we need to continue to
receive the support of some of the black folks who
have been supporting this administration. And you know, I'm just
sitting quietly in that because on one hand, I know

(07:22):
there are people who are like well as black people,
we have to focus specifically on the needs of black folks.
And at this point, there are a lot of people
who are saying, we want to see everybody do well,
but we are tired of being left out or being
you know, being grouped in with everybody, and then we

(07:43):
as black people do not receive our fair share.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
And so there's some folks out there who are like,
we're good.

Speaker 4 (07:50):
You know, it may not be perfect, but let's stay
focused on protecting our communities. There are other people, and
I tend to be one of them. Yes, I want
to see black folks strong. I want to see black
folks receive what we deserve. I want to see black
children able to excel and succeed.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
I want all of that.

Speaker 4 (08:14):
But I also know that the three car mollague is
very dangerous for our society as a whole. And I
know that we are dealing with a trifling group of
people who are very transactional and there is a very
specific strategy that they are working through. And I hope

(08:35):
that all of us are just eyes wide open and
able to see and understand what's going on. And so
when you have that juxtapose with the idea that more
than three hundred thousand, there's a larger number that I
cannot wait until this number is finally able to be

(08:58):
released to the public. And it's not that I'm excited
about it, but I want people to understand the debts
of where we stand, but that more than three hundred
thousand black women have been pushed out of the workforce
in the last several months.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
When you have that.

Speaker 4 (09:18):
And you're holding on this side, you got some funding
for HBCUs cool for we're losing jobs, we're having to
leave the workforce contracts and believing you the number is
undercounted because there are people who are not being it's
not being reported.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
They're not on anybody's spreadsheet, they're not in the data.

Speaker 4 (09:42):
They are just missing from the system. Hustling trying to
figure it out. People I am meeting people who are
PhDs who were running departments, whether it be in the
federal government, whether it be in educational institutions, whether it
be in corporation, working their behinds off. They are sixty

(10:03):
years old, you know, fifty five, sixty years old, and
they have now been terminated, and they're trying to find jobs.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
Doing anything cleaning, cook.

Speaker 4 (10:18):
You know, retail, just so they can have enough money
to be able to keep their lights on while they
figure out what's next, and while they you know, try
to you know, stabilize themselves and maybe learning new skills.
It's a real, real, real, real, real dangerous moment. And

(10:40):
you know, I hear people all the time saying, well,
we should just you know, just build our own. Granted,
we have to, we know that we have to. And
there are a lot of people out here who are
doing exactly that, working to build their own working to
collectorate with other groups, and to try to find ways

(11:03):
to maintain and to excel right and to hire their
own people and all of that. But people still need
to keep their lights on, groceries in their refrigerator, they
need to keep their cars on the road, you know,
they need to be able to turn the key in
the door. They need to be able to survive. They
should be able to actually enjoy life as well. And

(11:25):
so while we figured it's all out, there are a
lot of people who are hurting. And Black women may
be the most the most significant group of people who've
been pushed out of the workforce, but black men are
right behind us, which means this is an intentional, intentional
effort to dismantle our communities, to dismantle black women, to

(11:47):
dismandle black families, and to dismantle our communities our futures.
It is a dangerous moment. So it ain't a lot
of talking to be done because we already know the issues.
What we have to do now is go from talking
to action and trust and believe there are many of

(12:09):
us who are sitting with planning and organizing on a
regular basis to figure out what we do and to
figure out how we move in this moment. And also
we are grounding ourselves and the idea and the notion
and the understanding that this is not just a political fight.

(12:30):
It is a spiritual fight as well. And when you're
in a spiritual battle, you know that you move first
the silence that you need to hear from your particular
spiritual guidance, because you up against another evil spirit. You
have to ground yourself in that and prepare yourself for

(12:51):
a struggle that is going to be bigger and broader
than just who we vote for and who we elect.
There's an unleash beasts that is moving throughout this world
and certainly throughout this country. And once you unleased that beast,
you can't bottle it back up, and not only can

(13:13):
you not battle it back up, it's spread. It's not
going to just stay focused on harming the people that
you might want it to harm.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
Once you unleash the beast.

Speaker 4 (13:25):
It swings, the pendulum goes back and forth, and it
swings in your direction as well. So you know, I
am again just very very very very introspective right now,
just sitting with my stomach, with my spirit what it's
telling me. And I also am grateful for all the
people who are meeting and getting closer, even some of

(13:49):
us who never talked before or didn't like one another.
We're coming closer because we know the fight we're up against.
It's real, it's hard, but it's only going to work
if we fight together.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
So there's that.

Speaker 4 (14:05):
Now, let me tell you about my thought of the day,
and I am going to let us get to this
powerful interview so that you don't have to just hear
me talking, because I know you only used to having
my son, not going back and forth.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
My thought of the day today is something that is.

Speaker 4 (14:23):
Really really troubling to me, and we're going to be
talking about it more as you know, we continue this
podcast and also just our work every day, because it
is something to be said about what I see happening
again with black women. I want to read this to

(14:43):
you all because it startled me so much, and the
reason why it startled me is because I keep seeing
this on my feed from different people, different black women,
different pages.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
And so when I read this that NBA star NBA star.

Speaker 4 (15:03):
Naz Reid has a sister or had a sister God
blessed named Torrea read she was shot by her boyfriend
in New Jersey and killed. She was shot by her
boyfriend in New Jersey and killed. The NBA star Naz Reid,
his sister Terrrea Red was shot and killed by her
boyfriend in New Jersey. And the reason why again this

(15:26):
thing startled me is because the last several weeks, I
don't know about y'all, but I have been seeing over
and over black women who are either being killed by
a black man or a man amen, amen, some and
in many cases it has been a black man, but amen,

(15:48):
or maybe the girlfriend or you know, the new girlfriend,
the ex girlfriend. But also I've been I just noticing
that people are not like outraged, what the hell is
going on?

Speaker 1 (16:02):
Right?

Speaker 4 (16:02):
Like this is a crisis, that some thing is happening
where there are more domestic violence incidents.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
Where people are dying, where black women.

Speaker 4 (16:14):
Are actually being killed, and I don't really see like
a whole bunch of folks, including celebrities or you know,
everybody's saying, what the hell is going on? What is
happening in the mental psyche of the men in our
society that so many of them are taking the lives

(16:34):
of black women. I just watched the video the other
day of a man who got into an argument back
and forth on Live with his woman.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
She must you know, she was aggravating him.

Speaker 4 (16:46):
I could see where she's gone back and forth and
they did you know they were in But.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
It doesn't matter.

Speaker 4 (16:51):
You get your shit, you walk out, You'll never come back.
That's what it is. And they say shortly after they
got off the Live, he killed her, right, And then
it comes so close to home for us because Angelo Pinol,
attorney Angelo Pintol, who is one of the co founders
of our organization Until Freedom, you know, his grandchildren's mother

(17:16):
was recently killed by her new boyfriend.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
So not.

Speaker 4 (17:21):
Or a new guy that she was dealing with, not
by Angelo's son, but they because they were not together.
But the new person who was in her life killed
her and killed himself. And they have two children. Not
he doesn't have any children with her, the killer, but
Angelo has two grandchildren with this You know that came

(17:45):
from his son and this woman and she's been killed.
And I'm saying to myself, we have a crisis here,
and because we are so pulled in many different directions
with what's happening with the administration stuff going on in
the nation, you can't your free speech is now determined
by whether or not you speak the right way about

(18:09):
people who spoke hate over your life, right, Like this
is the new thing that we're tussling with people being
fired from their jobs because they choose to share the
words of someone who was filled in spewed hate about
our communities. Like, you're being pulled in so many directions
that you don't even have the time to stick with

(18:32):
this crisis that we're seeing in this nation. And so
my thought of the day today is to ask you all,
are y'all paying attention?

Speaker 1 (18:40):
Do you notice it?

Speaker 4 (18:42):
Or am I tripping that black women have been being
killed at higher rates and domestic violence incidents this year,
Like I'm just asking because perhaps sound tripping, but I
see an up to if you will in actual debts.
I'm not saying domestic violence has not always existed, but

(19:05):
when you have every couple of days post on social
media showing that a black woman has lost her life
because some man has killed her.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
That's very scary. Black women missing, found to be killed
by someone.

Speaker 4 (19:23):
And as I said, this NBA All Star you know
to have his sister shot and killed by her boyfriend.
And then I'm telling you the personal story about something
that until freedom is.

Speaker 1 (19:34):
Dealing with with.

Speaker 4 (19:36):
Uh, the mother of our co founders, grandchildren being killed
by her new partner, not the son of our love,
the love nephew, if you will, not the son of
our co founder. This is this is, this is very

(19:59):
startling to me, y'all. We can't allow it to just continue.
And as I said a few moments ago, once you
unleas unleash a beast, it doesn't just get bottled up
and put back in to.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
The cupboard.

Speaker 4 (20:15):
No, it's out, the saint is out, it's moving. And
so unless we actually do something about it, I don't
think it's just going to stop. And that means that
the mental health experts, the prayer warriors, the black men
who know how to get in these pockets and talk
to our brothers, there's have to be some work done,

(20:37):
and there's got to be some work done with our
sisters to be able to notice the first time that
this person might actually be dangerous and to stay away
to make better choices, and not to be thinking that
we got to be in relationships with people, because that
is causing us to find ourselves in a situation that
it's dangerous. It is because of our needs sometimes to

(21:00):
be in relation with folks. You know, we're putting ourselves
in danger and it's very very serious, and our sisters
need to know the sign. But our sisters also need
to be comfortable sitting alone if necessary. And so we
need the men and the families and the spiritual prayers,

(21:21):
the prayer and warriors and the mental health experts to
do some work and work with our brothers.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
But we also need some of that mental health.

Speaker 4 (21:31):
Support and the prayer warriors and the women who know
how to help women make good decisions at the brothers
who know how to talk to women about making better decisions.
Being alone is okay if that's what you need to do.
Just because that's your child's father does not mean that
you have to be in a relationship with him. If

(21:52):
another woman comes into the picture, you don't need to
kill her and you don't need to fight her.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
You need to move on and figure out something else
with your life.

Speaker 4 (22:00):
And lastly, noticing from day one when you see somebody
who you know is making funny Moore saying things that
make you feel uncomfortable, checking with your gut, getting away
from a person who's dangerous. Because these people are out
here taking the lives of black women, and I'm sure
what's happening in other communities as well. I'm seeing it

(22:24):
more for black women, and so it's scary, and I
think that for us not to talk about it and
to make it a big, big, big big issue, it's
very very, very irresponsible, and I won't participate in it,
so I'll be talking about it more often.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
I not.

Speaker 1 (22:40):
This is an issue.

Speaker 4 (22:41):
My son has also been talking about it that he
cares so much about, and we've got to put some real,
real highlight on it to ensure that this becomes the
thing that we address, that we do not just allow
to be the genie out of the bottle that just
continues to move and it ain't no good gene So
God bless us, y'all.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
I'm about to.

Speaker 4 (23:02):
Let you all see this powerful interview so you all
won't have to sit and listen to meun my mouth
because I know you used to you know, hearing from
my son and I I have a powerful interview that
I want you all to see Actively Black.

Speaker 1 (23:16):
I got my Actively black.

Speaker 4 (23:17):
On today an amazing, incredible experience at their most recent
fashion show that was not a fashion show, it was
an experience.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
It was super dope.

Speaker 4 (23:28):
And we've got the the great, the great, the great designer,
the great strategist, the great community supporter, community leader, our
brother Lanny Smith, who was the founder of Actively Black
along with his co founder. She won't be on Miss Bianca,

(23:49):
but I have to make sure to mention her. But
we have this great interview coming up with Lanny Smith
and you all will get to hear from him. So
that's coming up, and so you know, as I said
to you, we'll be back next week. My son will
be back. He'll be in here talking about all his
issues and what he doesn't get in society. But for now,

(24:11):
I am going to have you all to really be
able to tap into the culture with our brother Lanny Smith,
this powerful interview. I was just so taken by my
experience being at his show. But then even in this interview,
his passion comes through it shines through in such a
great way. So Landy Smith is coming up now, you

(24:32):
guys check the interview out. So today we have another
friend with us. You know we do the TMI show.
Running conversation is that all of our friends are people
doing great things, people we support, and we're really super
duper duper duper over the moon proud of brother Lanny Smith,

(24:54):
who is the founder of Actively Black, and it's so
exciting to have our brother here with us today day.
For those of you who don't know, first of all,
Actively Black is a premium athleisure brand.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
Hey you said that.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
Right, the premium athleisure brand.

Speaker 4 (25:13):
I like to call it, as we say on this
show all the time, that it is the black version
that's better than Lululemon. So if you like Lululemon, I
was a lululemon an addict, okay, and I put Lululemon
down for various reasons, but I was really really excited
that I could put one thing down and find something

(25:34):
with quality that in many cases most cases is even
more just at better quality even than that brand. So
we didn't bring him on they to talk about Lulemon
today and to compare it brands. But I just want
to make sure for folks who don't know that you
get the context of what we're talking about. That black
folks have a premium athleisure brand for all of your

(25:59):
workout and you're just because if you like me, you
wear it every.

Speaker 1 (26:03):
Day for your wear every day. That's what I do.
That's my clothes, What's what I wear.

Speaker 4 (26:09):
And his beautiful wife, Bianca, is co founder of Actively
Black along side of him. This brother was an NBA
player who's turned into an entrepreneur. And I think what
I'm attracted to the most about this brand is that
Actively Black is not just a for profit brand, but
it also is a brand that is invested in other

(26:32):
black people, black businesses, black communities, and that's what it's
all supposed to be about. So, Lanny, we thank you
so much for coming on with us today. So so
proud of you, brother, Thank you for being on the
TMI Show.

Speaker 6 (26:45):
Now, thank y'all for having me. I've told y'all this person.

Speaker 5 (26:48):
Y'all, y'all been so supportive of me and Actively Black,
and we've been building really from the beginning, you know,
And every time I see y'all, y'all right, and the
brand and so it's a pleasure to be here connecting
with y'all.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
Now, it's definitely a pleasure, man.

Speaker 3 (27:01):
You know, I remember back when I first got the
brand from my first scene of being you know, during
I'm Wanting. I don't know if it was during COVID,
but I know I had actively decided to support black
businesses and you were one of the first people that
I seen that had quality clothing. And then when I
actually got it, it was like wow, and it became

(27:22):
just like my everyday leisure where of working everything. So
I've always been supporting, But what made you decide to
start actively black?

Speaker 5 (27:32):
Yeah, you know, to me, committioned it earlier. You know,
I come from an athletic background. You know, my dream
was a plan in the NBA since I was four
years old, and I was blessed and fortunate to have
that opportunity to sign with the Sacramento Kings in two
thousand and nine, and unfortunately, thirty three days after signing

(27:52):
my first NBA contract, towards the articular cartilage on my
left knee, I had two microfracture surgeries.

Speaker 6 (27:58):
In my career was over with just like that, and
so I had that initial.

Speaker 5 (28:05):
Difficulty with the transition of being an athlete and then
trying to figure out what I was going to do
next for my life, went through the depression, the identity crisis,
all those things because I didn't have a plan b
It was make it to the league or bust, and
then you know, I was busted, you know what I'm saying.
So the first brand that I launched was called Active
Faith with my friends Anthony Tylerver and Steph Curry, who

(28:30):
both meant a faith that also played basketball and understood
what I was trying to build with it. It was
like trying to create a faith based version of Nike,
if you will. And so launched that out of my
mom's house in twenty ten, no prior experience in business
or anything like that, and just kind of learning on

(28:51):
the fly. But I was hiding myself from the public
knowing that I was the founder behind that brand, because
I would say sixty five percent plus of my customer
base at the time was evangelical white christ which we
know in this country is synonymous can be synonymous with

(29:11):
the racist, and so I figured that they knew that
it was this young black male behind the brand, it
would negatively affect the business, and I had all these
experiences that supported that that narrative.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
You know.

Speaker 5 (29:21):
I remember doing customer service and being on the phone
and the guy was like you sound like you black,
and I was like I am.

Speaker 6 (29:26):
He immediately asked for a refund, you know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (29:28):
So many different experiences like that that bothered me, and
so I felt conflicted. You know, my parents raised me
to be proud of my blackness, proud of my heritage,
proud of my culture. And here I was hiding myself
from people knowing I was the founder of this brand,
and that I just I felt internally conflicted. So fast forward.

(29:52):
The movie Black Panther came out in twenty eighteen, and
I never forget just seeing you know, this this superhero
on the screen that looked like me, like mine, with
a skin like mine, and seeing the way the diaspora
came together around that film. And I remember walking out
of that movie saying, man, I want to create a
brand that makes my people feel the way that movie
made us feel. Fast forward again, I put the idea

(30:13):
on the shelf, moved to LA six months before the
pandemic hit, and then we all saw the murder George
Floyd Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Aubrey and the response to it.
And I saw all of these brands make all these
performative declarations about what they were going to do for
black people, and it pissed me off because it felt
performative to me in the moment. You know, we see
now four or five years later, that's exactly what it was.

(30:35):
It was just it wasn't nothing but part of their
marketing strategy at the time. But I felt like that's
what it was in the moment, and I said, but man,
it's time for us to stop asking for seat at
their table and build our own table, you know what
I mean, Because these brands have profited billions of dollars
off of black talent, black culture, black consumerism, and we

(30:55):
really shouldn't have to ask for them to do the
right thing and pour it back into the black community.

Speaker 6 (30:59):
But let's stop asking.

Speaker 5 (31:01):
Let's just build our own thing, and then we can
feed our people, uh, the way we need to. So that's,
you know, sorry for the long way to answer, but
that's really what led, you know, to me starting to
actively black.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
No, it wasn't long wind.

Speaker 4 (31:14):
It's it's important context so that people will understand the
thought process and the struggle of you know what it
takes to get to where you are today, which you're
not even close to where you're going to be. We
know that, we can see that. But let me just
let me ask going back to actively faith, that's what.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
You call faith.

Speaker 6 (31:36):
Active faith was a person.

Speaker 1 (31:38):
Did you guys make money?

Speaker 6 (31:41):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (31:41):
I mean we we did. The largest year we did
was we did six.

Speaker 6 (31:46):
Million in one year.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (31:49):
Yeah. I mean this was out of my mom's house,
and it was it was.

Speaker 5 (31:52):
It was weird because I was learning everything about business,
about e commerce, about all of this on the fly.
But there were so many mistakes that I was because
I was learning this as I was building it, you
know what I mean, Like starting it, I ain't have
no money, so you know, to pay ten twenty thousand
dollars for a website, I didn't have that.

Speaker 6 (32:09):
So I went I went to YouTube University.

Speaker 5 (32:12):
I taught myself how to cold my own website, taught
myself how to use photoshop and illustrator because I don't
have any design background, so even just to be able
to make the mockups of the clothes, you know, I
just self taught myself through through YouTube and Yeah, it's
something and I still own it, you know what I mean.
I'm trying to actually figure out what the next steps
are and what I'm going to do with Active Faith.

(32:32):
There are a few people who reached out about buying it,
but that is a separate entity that.

Speaker 6 (32:38):
Yeah, I'm trying to figure out what to do with
that one.

Speaker 3 (32:41):
That's beautiful. So fast forward. I'm just I was just
so taken by this fashion show that we just went to.
Like it was it was just amazing, Like you could
tell it was made with love, it was made with
kid and it.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
Was actively black. What was Yeah, what made you make this? Like?

Speaker 3 (33:05):
It wasn't like you said, it's not a fashion show?
Like what was the mind state that you had behind
this fashion show?

Speaker 2 (33:12):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (33:12):
So this this was our third one. We hadn't done
one since twenty twenty three. The first one I did
was in twenty twenty two. We got invited to just
we got a late invite to be part of an
existing show and they were just going to give us
the last fifteen minutes of the show to do something,
and we came out and we did something. When I

(33:34):
say similar, obviously it wasn't like what just transpired but
we just we just put the culture on the runway,
you know what I mean. It wasn't your typical fashion
show with just playing some music and having people walking
like zombies in a straight line, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 6 (33:47):
Like I really wanted to represent the culture on the runway.

Speaker 5 (33:50):
We came back twenty three with our own private hour
and it really killed it. I mean, we had we
had Alan Iverson close out our show on twenty twenty three,
you know, knowing what he means to the culture. That's
really what it's always been to me. It really hasn't
been a fasted show. It's always been like, how do

(34:11):
I use this moment to tell stories? How do I
use it a moment to display the culture? And I
promised myself after twenty twenty three that I wouldn't even
do it again, you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (34:22):
It's like, how do you top that?

Speaker 5 (34:24):
How do you top Alan Iverson walking the runway in
your faster show?

Speaker 6 (34:27):
You know what I mean? And so I just started
getting these this pool to do it again.

Speaker 5 (34:35):
And you know, we have all these incredible collaborations that
we've been blessed to do. You know, We've got collaborations
with the Muhammad Aliah State, the Malcolm Xas State, the
Martin Luther King of State, the Tupaca State, the Bob
Marlea State. We have all these different collaborations and the
way that we have executed them. I've been fortunate enough

(34:56):
to develop, you know, relationships with those families, with those
the states. And so when I thought about doing this show,
I was like, seeing how everything has been happening from
the beginning of this year, from the new administration coming in,
the attack on black history, the attack on black women,
the attack on this black culture period, I was like,

(35:17):
you know what, I know, I said, I wasn't going
to do this again, but I think we need this.
I think we need something like this just as a
moment of pride, as a moment of us telling our
own story. Regardless of what they take out of these museums, regardless.

Speaker 6 (35:33):
Of what they take out of these libraries.

Speaker 5 (35:36):
We can continue to share our own stories, we can
continue to champion our culture. And that's what I really
wanted this moment to be. And so that's why it
was so intentional with the storytelling. That's why it was
so intentional with all the clips that you saw play
before the collection came out because I wanted to make
sure that black history was being taught through the content

(35:56):
that people were immerged in.

Speaker 6 (35:58):
So yeah, man, it was very intentional.

Speaker 4 (36:00):
For folks who don't know what we're talking about, it
we are sitting in the midst of fashion week and
actively Black Show just took place and we were there
front and center to see this incredible experience. It definitely
was not a fashion show. It wasn't experienced and it

(36:23):
was it was. It was motivational and also very touching,
especially because we know so many of the stories that
we had an opportunity to sort of see it go
from on the screen, which has been the reality for
us that Ruby Bridges I've never and I you know,
I'm in this work for a long time.

Speaker 1 (36:42):
I've never been in the same room with Ruby Bridges.

Speaker 4 (36:47):
And for those of you who don't know who she is,
go look her up and you know, to see her
come out and just all of the different people there.
It's different from just showing the experience, showing the video
of their speeches and or contributions to our movement, then

(37:07):
to have them present in the room. And I would
love to hear from you because I know Bianca plays
a significant role. I'm sure that she done seeing exactly
the headshake is like, yeah, how.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
Does that happen?

Speaker 4 (37:23):
Collaborations are one thing, but getting them there, I know
Bernie's king who we loved. That's when I cried finally
when I saw my sister, that's our big sister, to
come out el yasa love her.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
I know Bernie's don't she won't go.

Speaker 4 (37:38):
That's just she just you can as I've asked her
to do stuff and she's like, I ain't doing that.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
You know, that's just not her style.

Speaker 4 (37:44):
She shows up in places, makes an impact and you know,
and is not readily you know, or or overly exposed.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
So how did that work?

Speaker 4 (37:55):
The coordination of the relationships and then the relationships to
the show happening the way that it did.

Speaker 5 (38:02):
Yeah, one, you know, I think we live in an
era where a lot of people approach relationships and networking
in a way where it's like what can I get
out of it?

Speaker 6 (38:14):
You know what I'm saying, Like everybody always has ulterior motives.

Speaker 5 (38:20):
I think what has allowed us to develop these relationships
with these different estates is I truly truly went to
them from a place of paying homage, you know what
I mean, and not asking for anything, not trying to
get anything out of it, but like really wanted to
just pay homage to all.

Speaker 6 (38:40):
Of these estates.

Speaker 5 (38:41):
And I make a point to ask all of them
for their approval for any product that we put out,
any designs that we put out. I asked for their
input so that everything feels authentic, you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (38:53):
And I think that because we've approached it that.

Speaker 5 (38:56):
Way, blessed me with their trust, which is something I
do not take lightly at all. And you're absolutely right,
Like the least Bernice's assistant and a close friend, she
told me straight up when I first asked about this,
she was like doing that, you know what I'm saying, Like,

(39:22):
just just she's not doing that.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
And then you laughing because we know all two.

Speaker 5 (39:29):
And even and even doctor survives, even Aliosa, She's like, yeah,
I'm not doing that. She's like, yeah, i'll call, I'll
come to the show, I'll watch the show. But I'm
not I'm not walking. I'm not doing it. And I
got an opportunity to speak with all of them and
share with them the concept of what I was trying
to do. Right because even they didn't truly understand what

(39:52):
I was trying to do. It like, you want me
to walk on a fashion show, you know what I mean.
I was like, nah, it's not really a fashion show,
you know. And I had to kind of break that
down and give them the full vision of it. And
one by one, you know, they they came around and
they were like, you know what, there's something special about this.
I'm going to do that and doctor King change her

(40:14):
her travel schedule.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
That's big. I'm telling you to be big.

Speaker 5 (40:22):
And I'm trying not to get emotional, because we was emotional,
so we know.

Speaker 1 (40:30):
But that's what I'm trying to say.

Speaker 4 (40:31):
Like, the reason why we are, why I asked this
question is because I know her well and I know
for a fact that she does not just move around.
She does not think that that is the most helpful
use of her time and or just like taking up
space in the world. It's not her thing. It's not
about it's not an ego thing, it's none of that.

(40:53):
It's just that she feels like it's no there's nothing
for me to go to this place for, Like, y'all
do that and let me know how it goes, And
how can I contribute. That's what she asked me every time,
How can I contribute? But she's not a person that
likes to take up space everywhere, So for you to
get her change her life to.

Speaker 1 (41:15):
Be there, it's huge.

Speaker 5 (41:18):
There's another layer on top of that, right the shooting
of the of the racist happened last week and everything
just went on super high alert. Yeah, and I actually
had to reconvince both Alisa and doctor King, you know
what I mean.

Speaker 1 (41:34):
Yes, speacause then it's like, this is why we go
right now.

Speaker 3 (41:38):
You can't you can't be black right now, like they're
making this scene like you you just you're supposed to
have a black voice. You can't be you can't feel
a way, you can't love, you can't talk against racism
only like we just actually have to be silent and black.
We can't be actively black. They want us to be
silent and black, that exactly.

Speaker 5 (41:57):
And so and so that added layer was like, you know,
we we brought in extra extra security, you know what
I'm saying, Like I had I had to assure them
that I was gonna make sure we did everything possible
to keep them safe.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
You know.

Speaker 5 (42:12):
That's why that's another reason why nobody knew that they
were going to be.

Speaker 6 (42:15):
In the show.

Speaker 5 (42:15):
Like we made sure like this is not something that
gets out. It'll be a surprise lay there. We're gonna
make sure they get out safely. But like this whole
thing was a surprised but the fact that they both
agreed to do it was something that I'm gonna remember
for the rest of my life. And I'll never forget
Doctor King when she when she got in, she called

(42:38):
me to come to her whole her hotel room, and
she literally grabbed my hand in her and the lease
and pray for.

Speaker 6 (42:45):
Me and and gave me.

Speaker 5 (42:47):
A copy of her father's I Have a Dream speech
and she signed it for me, and I just, man,
I ain't gonna lie, man, I cried.

Speaker 6 (42:54):
I just cried what I'm saying, like, I just I just.

Speaker 5 (42:58):
Uh, these are people who I grew up learning about.
You know, Martin and Malcolm been hanging on my wall
my whole life. Tommy Smith and John Carlos been hanging
on my wall my whole life, you.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
Know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (43:12):
And even for them, I asked them both to do it,
and they first they were reluctant. And this is the
exact picks that I told John Carlos and Tommy Smith,
I said. Eliot Asta Surbiz is walking to represent her father,
Malcolm X. Doctor Bernise King is walking to represent her
father Martin Luther King Junior. Fred Hampton Junior is walking

(43:35):
to represent his father Fred Hampton. Rika Newton is walking
to represent her husband Huey Newton. I said, the difference
what y'all is they are all gone, y'all are still here.
Do you know how powerful that would be for y'all
to be there and recreate that moment that y'all did
at the nineteen sixty eight Olympics and put y'all fist

(43:57):
up on that runway right now in this time where
what is happening is they're trying to take us back
to the time.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
That's what it.

Speaker 5 (44:07):
Is what influence y'all to do what you did in
the first time, you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (44:10):
The whole reason that y'all got up on that on
that metal.

Speaker 5 (44:12):
Stand and raise your fist is because of what's going
on right now, what they're trying to take us back to.
And they both were like, I'm in you know what
I'm saying. So it just I'm still I'm still processing this,
you know what I'm saying, Like I'm still.

Speaker 6 (44:28):
Don't even feel real that I haven't I haven't watched
the show.

Speaker 4 (44:33):
Yet, like you got and you have to sell it.
It should be five dollars. I'm telling you. I've been
saying this to everybody. I told Falisha, which we should
talk about Valisia being in the show as well, but
I said, Alisha, you have to call Lanny. You have
to tell him that it's five dollars.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
That's it. You can make money.

Speaker 4 (44:53):
You can, you know, redistribute it to other organizations or
you know, a young design or something, but you need
to charge large five dollars to put that show out
so that people one will take it seriously. And I
know for a fact that folks are gonna go watch it.
Five thousand is not a lot of money to be
able to see it.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
We can't.

Speaker 4 (45:13):
I mean, the content is important, and sure we should
get it out there and the world needs to see
it and whatever, but we got to start taking our
intellectual property seriously. You know what I'm saying, Because that
show is a history lesson for people who don't know.
They need a notepad to sit with that. Because I
know that there were folks who just came to a

(45:34):
fashion show. They like actively black.

Speaker 1 (45:36):
It was cool.

Speaker 4 (45:37):
Somebody invited them and they have no idea who most
of the people were that you guys highlighted.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
But the other side of it.

Speaker 4 (45:46):
Is as Martin's speech, doctor King's speech as it was
going on and he was talking about somebody told a
lie one day, all around me it was my son,
Wes Bellamy on the side of him. There was a
brother behind, and there was a brother this way. Everybody
was reciting the words word for word for word for word,

(46:08):
and that I mean, I went through a whole experience
sitting there and then our friends sitting behind us.

Speaker 1 (46:15):
They have a tech company.

Speaker 4 (46:17):
They are doing the same thing you're doing, pouring everything
they have into it.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
Van Meyer.

Speaker 4 (46:22):
They're doing a great job of growing it, but it's hard.
And when you came out and were and you was
emotional at the end, like this is you don't know
what we've been through to make this happen. I look
back and I could see the tears watering up in
their eyes.

Speaker 3 (46:39):
Told me yesterday said he said it was the best
thing he ever seen in his life. He was I've
never seen anything like that.

Speaker 4 (46:45):
Yeah, And they were, they and they were and and
and later on his wife said to me, I know
exactly what he's talking about, Like, I know this is
our We we're sitting in the middle of pouring our
everything into this business to support our people, to build
a brand that's not just black, but it's you know,

(47:06):
it's it's by black people for black people, for.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
Sure, and we are we know how hard it.

Speaker 4 (47:13):
Is just to get people who you would think they
would support you immediately and they do not.

Speaker 6 (47:21):
Let me tell you something I had.

Speaker 5 (47:23):
There were moments where I stopped talking because there were
certain things that I wanted to say, but I was like,
you know what, I'm not going to use this platform
to say that I'm still going. But everybody you can
think of, so I'm not gonna say no names, but
everybody you can think of in black culture that says

(47:45):
they for the culture, or that says they building for us,
or says that they support this, I invited all of them.
I reached out to all of them, to all of them,
and so many of them that I expected to show
up didn't show up.

Speaker 6 (48:06):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (48:09):
Even outside of that, even like when I think about
what your friend those tears that she was feeling, and
when she says, I know what he's talking about, Like,
there's a you're fighting on two different fronts. When you're
trying to build, when you're standing in the space that
you'all stand in, when you're standing in the space that
I'm standing in, and you're standing in these spaces, you're
fighting against a system that doesn't want you to survive,

(48:31):
let alone thrive, and have to fight, oftentimes even against
your own people who don't understand, or who will throw
the rocks at you, or who will try to pull
you down from doing what you're doing. You know what
I'm saying. And there are times where you could just
feel not defeated, but depleted.

Speaker 6 (48:49):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (48:50):
I feel like God, like I'm fighting for us, and
you fight me while I'm fighting for us, and I
got to fight this devil too, I'm saying, Like, so
I'm fighting on both ends, and there's times where it
just feels deflating, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 6 (49:06):
I had a video that.

Speaker 5 (49:09):
Went crazy earlier in the year, and people thought I
was talking about you know that I was hating all
Ralph loren and these other brands, and I'm like, man,
y'all not y'all missing the message.

Speaker 6 (49:18):
What I'm trying to get us to value us? It
ain't even you could change the name.

Speaker 5 (49:22):
It could be Louis Vauton, it could be good, it
could be whoever you wanted to be. It's not a
comparison of brands. What I'm trying to say is I'm
trying to get us to value us the way that
everybody else. The Mackenzie Report, released last year says Black
people spend thirty billion dollars collectively a year on apparel
and shoes. We don't have a single billion dollar apparel

(49:43):
of brand that's black on. Collectively, we are spending thirty
billion dollars a year, and we don't have a single
billion dollar a pair of brand that's black on. So
if you're looking at what we're doing and you're seeing, Oh,
he's hiring black talent. Oh, he's giving back to black communities. Oh,
he's creating black mental health events for black men. He's

(50:07):
supporting Black Mama's Matter, supporting this this abysmal maternal mortality
rate for Black women who are dying during pregnancy at
three times the rate of anybody else in this country.

Speaker 6 (50:18):
He's paying for black kids cold, so black kids learned
how to cold.

Speaker 5 (50:22):
Like you're seeing that a black brand is doing all
those things.

Speaker 6 (50:27):
And you.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
Said you for the black you know, but that's the
reality that we deal with.

Speaker 3 (50:36):
Understand exactly how you feel, because we deal with it
every day. The biggest fight is against our own people
like it. And I was listening to you when you
said that, it was so many black people that told
you not to.

Speaker 2 (50:49):
Name it black.

Speaker 3 (50:51):
Yeah, don't yeah black, don't name it black. And that's
the mind state that we don't. Like you said, we
don't see the value in us. We're scared that because
because we embrace us, that it won't be big. You know,
it's not going to have the same level of success
because we embrace us and we love.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
On our own stuff and our own people.

Speaker 6 (51:12):
So you know why that's crazy. You know why that's crazy.
It's hard to cut you off.

Speaker 5 (51:15):
One of the reasons why that's crazy is that whatever
black culture creates ends up becoming global stickway, That's what
I'm saying, whether you want to embrace it or not,
that's what happened. Hip hop wasn't creating and it was
like yo, let's try to make sure everybody likes what
we're creating. It was black and brown kids creating hip
hop too as a as a form of expression for

(51:36):
what we were living through, for what our experiences are,
what our perspectives are, and then it still became something
that is global, this break dance competitions in South Korea.
You know what I'm saying, Like every culture is it
imitates our culture. So why do you think that if
you create something that is celebrating and honoring our culture

(51:58):
that it limits that it limits its its scale, its scalability.
Everything we create becomes mainstream.

Speaker 1 (52:06):
I'm gonna tell you why.

Speaker 4 (52:07):
I'm gonna tell you why because we lacked an understanding
and these people, the old pressors, if you will, did
a very good job. They say, Willie lynch Letta is
not real, but it certainly is real and sentiment because
we lack an understanding of our history. When some white
women can start wearing corn rolls and all of a sudden,

(52:30):
it's the most you know, everybody is flies. Oh my,
you know the Kardashians they got the corn rolls dispersing
these white people. And meanwhile the corn roll was created
to actually hide food rice in hair exactly to sow
in rice in the African's hair. If you don't know

(52:52):
that history, then it will actually seem like something new
and fresh and fly when it comes up, you know,
on another person's head who has millions of dollars in
they're on TV, or they've got, you know, a booty
that has been designed to look like the booty that
your mama, your grandmama and your aunties had and they

(53:12):
don't even want that booty. That booty is carrying too
much junk in a trunk, but they, you know, they're
stuck with it, so to speak, other people trying to
get the booty. And so it's because we don't understand
our history. And that was done to us on purpose,
because when you separate a people from their roots, you
separate a people from their history, then you can tell

(53:32):
them anything, sell them anything. And that's what's happening. And
then at the same time, before you go, because you know,
we don't want to hold you too long, but you
know we could sit and talk to tomorrow, then till tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (53:45):
But you know, just thinking about that.

Speaker 4 (53:48):
Here we are now with more than three hundred thousand
women who are black women who have been pushed out
of the work for us. And just to be clear,
they are are other reports that are coming out that
is showing that the numbers are actually even higher. But
you got you know, we gotta wait until all the

(54:08):
research is done and the reports come back. But it's
showing that the numbers are higher because there's a number
of people who've been fired, there's a number of people
who left the work for us, and there's a number
of people who didn't have jobs already who were trying
to find work and they still have not been able
to get back in the workforce. So you when you
add all of that, there is a serious, serious crisis

(54:33):
happening in the black community. Serious and by the way,
black women are number one because we are being we
are being punished for the way we vote and the
way we think.

Speaker 1 (54:47):
That's why they said anti DEI.

Speaker 4 (54:49):
Everybody went around arguing about all the data shows the
white women. When they said anti DEI, they was talking
about black people. That's what they meant when they said
anti DA. But just to be clear, because I know
some of our people or some of our brothers.

Speaker 1 (55:06):
Are like, oh that ain't got nothing to do with me.

Speaker 4 (55:07):
Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, it does because
black men are number two in terms of job loss.

Speaker 1 (55:15):
Right, there is a.

Speaker 4 (55:18):
And I want to be mindful not to use the
word attack because we probably can't get that on YouTube
now because you know, you can't say attack if you
say war.

Speaker 1 (55:28):
They're now making.

Speaker 4 (55:29):
All of those words criminalize when we say it. But
they can say it, they can say it, but we can't.
But there is a movement, an intentional movement to dismantle
and destabilize our communities. And what we know is that, yes,
our tax dollars should circulate back into our communities in
terms of services, you know, funding for our programs, jobs

(55:54):
within the federal government, the local governments and all of that, definitely.
But what is going to sustain us is black business
is like actively black and other businesses where our allies
understand the importance of keeping us employed, helping us build
new brands and new businesses. So I don't know what
people I don't We talked about this in Martha's vinyard.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
I don't know what people are thinking or if they're
paying attention.

Speaker 4 (56:20):
But it feels like you're in a bubble when you
are in when you like y'all see y'all less and
they're like, yeah, ain't got nothing to do with me.

Speaker 5 (56:31):
Okay, yeah, yeah, Nah. It's it's it's it's real. It's
it's and it's something that you know, I think it's
a James Baldwin quote where he talked about being conscious
and you being in a constant state of rage.

Speaker 6 (56:46):
You know what I'm saying, just because.

Speaker 4 (56:49):
Cocos, Yes, you're black and conscious is to be in
a constant state of rage.

Speaker 6 (56:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (56:56):
And it's like, because you're conscious of what's going on,
you can ignore it.

Speaker 6 (57:01):
I can't ignore it.

Speaker 5 (57:02):
So then when you're seeing people who are not conscious
of it and they just walking around like you know,
like happening, it just it drives it just it drives
It drives you crazy. So that's a thing that I
talk about even with the people who have who had
the criticisms even about actively black and are pricing and
all that kind of stuff, And I'm like, listen, we

(57:23):
building something out the mud. Like we don't get the
same access to capital and resources that my white counterparts get.
So when you're buying this hoodie or this shirt or
this product or whatever the case may be, it's not
just about that shirt, and not just about that hoodie.

(57:44):
It's the fact that, guess what, I'm able to employ
black people. The bigger that I can grow actively black,
I can that's somebody's that's somebody's salary, that's somebody benefits
and insurance.

Speaker 6 (57:57):
You know what I'm saying, Like, you're not, we're not
thinking about the bigger picture.

Speaker 5 (58:01):
You know, you're just comparing it like man Will Paolo
been around for fifty years, so why you.

Speaker 6 (58:05):
Could know you you're still missing the point. Yeah, if
we can build, if.

Speaker 5 (58:12):
You see what actively black is doing right now, if
we're giving back this much of the community right now,
what you think we can do if we're a billion.

Speaker 6 (58:18):
Dollar company, I don't.

Speaker 5 (58:20):
I don't want us to be a billion dollar company,
so eight billionaire. I want us to be a billion
dollar company, because how many black people can we Manike
Nike employees. Nike employees at least I think it's like
fifty thousand that they employed. Imagine having a black brand
that could employ all this black talent you could go

(58:41):
to work. Ain't got a cold switch.

Speaker 6 (58:43):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (58:44):
You ain't gotta worry about the microaggressions that you got
to face in corporate America because they want you to
minimize your blackness. You could come work at a company
that embraces who you are. That's what I'm trying to
build like and and we have the actually have the
power to do it. Once we can get enough of
us to understand who we are, to understand what our power.

Speaker 6 (59:06):
Is, collectively, we can actually do it.

Speaker 5 (59:09):
And I think that's why, you know, the tagline for
acting black is there's greatness in our DNA. I'm actually
trying to deprogram us and reprogram us to understand who
we actually are. I grew up on Nike. Just do
it was implanted in my brain, into everybody's brain, so
much so that that things that didn't have anything to
do with the actual product. You still remember that tagline.

(59:33):
You had a test, you had to do, you had
a big basketball game, you had something you like, you know,
just do it, Just do it. Now, what about a
whole generation of black kids, black boys and girls growing
up There's greatness in my DNA. There's greatness in my DNA.
They ain't got nothing to do with this hoodie nothing.
But then when you face in the adversity, you gotta

(59:53):
face in the society, when you're thinking about what you're
trying to build for your family, when you think about
how you need to carry yourself, when you think about
the movement that my song had been championing as far
as boycott black murder, and you're thinking about, Man, we
share DNA. Man, why should you be my apt You
know what I'm saying, there's this in our DNA. If

(01:00:13):
I can't get our people to de program, if I
can deprogram us and reprogram us and understanding what we
really are, who we really are, that's when we could
really change things for ourselves.

Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
Well, you don't said a word, my brother, man, and
you know you got our support. We're gonna be with.

Speaker 3 (01:00:29):
You, you know, in the trenches with you man, you know.
And I just want to commend you on your growth
and evolution. Just watching you constantly put on for our
people and growing and the clothing is just dope.

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
Let them know where to get the clothing in quality.
Talk about the quality too.

Speaker 6 (01:00:48):
Yeah, man, I'm so bad.

Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
You asked that.

Speaker 5 (01:00:50):
I was very intentional on making sure that our people
could buy actively black and not have to feel like
they had to sacrifice quality.

Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:00:59):
Unfortunately to the stereotype is that if you buy a
black one, you got to sacrifice quality. Some of those
reasons are because of the same systemic racism and oppression
that our people have been facing, where we don't get
the same access, you know what I'm saying. But nevertheless,
I wanted to make sure that our people could put
this on and feel proud and feel like, oh, this
feels like my Nike, this feels like my George, this
feels like my Lululemon, and feeling like, yeah, I can

(01:01:21):
stand up next to anybody else wearing what they wearing
and I can say, well, mine is a black on brand,
and I know my money is going back into my community.
And the quality is dope and the design is dope.
So nah, we're very attention about that.

Speaker 4 (01:01:36):
Well, it's not that expensive. So I just want people
to stop that lie. No, it's a lie that it's
too expensive. We are knocking Gucci down, knocking down the
door they probably. I wonder if you do an analysis,
if we did an analysis of how much money they
make off black people, because I see Gucci every dy. Now,

(01:01:57):
some of it is poo is fake, it's Tucci with
a G. But nonetheless, even the attempt to have it
on right, the attempt to have Chanelle. I have it,
so I'm not I'm not saying I'm not talking down
on other people.

Speaker 1 (01:02:12):
I have it.

Speaker 4 (01:02:12):
Every brand Dor I have it, de Hermad, I have it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:17):
I have it.

Speaker 4 (01:02:18):
So for me to go to a website and see
a two hundred dollar sweater or some eighty dollar leggings
and to complain about that, like, I will be playing
myself because I'm not complaining about it. Lululemon is mad expensive, bruh.
When I used to go to Lululemon, there's one in
Atlanta across the street from my hotel that I like
to stand, so I always stay there because I could

(01:02:40):
get to my malls and you know, all my stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
So Lululemen I walk there every time.

Speaker 4 (01:02:46):
I walk out of there with eight hundred dollars worth
of stuff and it's one bag, maybe two bags, and
maybe something wasn't available so it's coming in the mail.
It's not that much. You don't get that two three,
You ain't here hundred dollars.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
I don't.

Speaker 4 (01:03:00):
It's not it's not that expensive. The one complaint that
I have is it ain't all on the site. I
need all that stuff that was on that runway to.

Speaker 6 (01:03:08):
Be on the site starting to day, start to day.
It will be.

Speaker 5 (01:03:12):
So there was a lot of those collections that will
be rolling out. The Bosque collection not coming out until
December at the Art Bottle, but the collections we have
with the King Center, with the Shabbaz Center, those will
be on the website later today. John Carlos, Tommy Smith,
that collection is going to be on the website today. Yeah,

(01:03:32):
we we're going to be rolling some of those things
out and you can find that actively black dot com
or all of our social media is actively Black and
we're gonna we're gonna continue building this thing out. We're
working on, you know, putting together an.

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
That's own special.

Speaker 2 (01:03:49):
You know, I've seen.

Speaker 5 (01:03:52):
Style of shout out to my man definitely as side collected.
So that's actually you know, we we're debuting a a
collab ultimate.

Speaker 3 (01:04:03):
Both of y'all. I love both of your sides. My
guide to always been supporting just see, this's what it is.
It's collaboration and building and this is how you create
generational wealth and you just start building your own.

Speaker 2 (01:04:14):
Man. I love it. Man, We're gonna always support it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (01:04:17):
Yet I want the bathing suits though those were cute.
I like the bathing suits. It was a lot of
cute stuff that was up there that you know, like,
we need, we need it, we need it. I'm ready
to get in it. I love it. Thank you so much, brother,
we appreciate you for coming on. Don't be worried about
these people. I was getting ready to give you some
more work. But I know it's too many things. But

(01:04:38):
I was going to say, if people buy a thing,
maybe they could see the show as a part of
their purchase, right, and then that would make it make sense,
because if you buy a thing, then you get the show,
the link to the show. But if you're just trying
to you know, you know, that's what I do. If
you want somebody to help you think, call that's.

Speaker 6 (01:04:59):
What I I might have to do that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:01):
I like that. I was. I was.

Speaker 5 (01:05:02):
I was thinking about doing even a live stream type
of situation and and and and have it to where
everybody on the same day we were watching it together
and just even hearing my commentary on how we put
the certain things together. I got some behind the scenes
footage that were editing right now that we're going to
put out as well. A lot of people have been
asking like, how did you how did you come up

(01:05:23):
with this?

Speaker 6 (01:05:23):
How did you put this out? So I definitely want
to want to give people an inside look at how
we put this whole thing together.

Speaker 4 (01:05:30):
All right, my brother, take care, thank you, and God
bless the new baby and the family. Y'all look great.
You are great, and there is greatness in our DNA.

Speaker 1 (01:05:40):
Yes, actively black, actively black.

Speaker 4 (01:05:44):
When I was thinking about how people told them not
to use the word black, I really understand.

Speaker 1 (01:05:50):
I do, I truly do.

Speaker 4 (01:05:51):
People are like so tired of being attacked, They're so
tired of the backlash that comes at us, and so
it makes people kind of feel like, oh my god,
if you say black, then nobody's gonna buy it. But
what I realize is that as I was listening to him,
and I started to really channel some energy from the ancestors,

(01:06:11):
and I'm thinking, we have to ReCl we have to
claim and hold on to our heritage, because if we
don't do that in this moment, we will be silence
to the point, like you said, silence, silence black, right,
we will be silence to the point that our history
will be erased and diminished so far that the next

(01:06:34):
generation will be worse than the one we have now
that doesn't really know much about the history of like
who we are, where we come from.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
We have to have people who are.

Speaker 4 (01:06:42):
Willing to hold on to the heritage and to keep
the story of our blackness and our DNA front and center.
That's hard work, and that is one of the reasons
why everybody should support this brand and this family and
what they're doing. I was going to post, and you know,
I'm terrible, I'm always days behind stuff, but I was

(01:07:05):
going to post that every single celebrity in America black
needs to be African, whoever you are, wherever you are,
if you like to come here, they need to be
at that show, wearing their stuff and supporting this this
brother and his family in any way that they can.
And I was gonna post that and say it, and

(01:07:25):
now I want to say it directly. If you are
a celebrity and you are not up on actively black,
get there and support and show up at the show,
because it makes a difference. When Tyrese is there, it
makes it differ. People say Laurence Hill was there, but
I didn't see Lauren Hill. Then yeah, Terrees was there.
You know, it makes a difference, Forelicia, that's right, this

(01:07:48):
is this is important.

Speaker 1 (01:07:49):
It was important. So that's how I feel.

Speaker 2 (01:07:52):
No, you know, I've been locked in with Lenny for
a while.

Speaker 3 (01:07:56):
You know, he he's just and just listening to you
understand passion, you know, and he understands. He really comes
from a place of really wanting to do what's best
for our people and want to be an example of
excellence and in something that's powerful. You see it like
when you when you get those clothes, when you have

(01:08:17):
these clothes on, you feel that it is love put
into these clothes and they look good, they feel good.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
They represent us in a proper manner.

Speaker 3 (01:08:24):
So anything I can do, I'm definitely gonna make sure
that I do to support this man. Make sure actively
Black dot Com go get you some of that gear.
It is like matter fact, I think they gotta. They
had a sponsorship for a Black pant They did like
a Black Panther brand in one of the I think
the Last Black Panther movie. Some of the clothing they
had clothing that was inside it.

Speaker 4 (01:08:45):
They work those partners, those partnerships. But it's not shouldn't
be a discussion. That should be we should just be like, Oh,
that's actively black, that's our stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:08:57):
That's it.

Speaker 4 (01:08:58):
But we'll say oh, but I don't like him because
he once and I was at the thing and he
looked at me, and I don't feel like he wanta.
The same thing with fam I mean, excuse me, the
same thing with fan base all Isaac he made me
and he said this and then.

Speaker 1 (01:09:15):
Brah like what the people? The people, what the okay?
They pitched you off? Cool? I get it.

Speaker 4 (01:09:23):
The other people are racist and once you dead and
you're buying, they stuff eating their food, wearing, they stuff
living in their places of their business, their buildings.

Speaker 1 (01:09:33):
We should stop definite and as my song was say,
if he was.

Speaker 4 (01:09:37):
Here, I am not gonna always be right and he
won't always be wrong, but we will always be authentic.

Speaker 1 (01:09:44):
Peace