Keith Lee: Familee Day, Food Rules, Sobriety, Wife Support & Spirit Tunnel Moments + More

Keith Lee: Familee Day, Food Rules, Sobriety, Wife Support & Spirit Tunnel Moments + More 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
What's up? Its way up with Angela.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Ye, Doug Phenomena's here with me today, and we have
somebody who has literally changed lives, including his own and
his families.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
We have Keith and Lee here with us. Welcome to
the show.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Honor to be here, man, Let's do it.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
I first saw you in person at the South Beach
Wine and Food Festival.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Yes, of course, I was like because when they asked.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Me to host a panel and I saw you were
on it, I was super excited.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Likewise, it was so much going on. That's why as
soon as you did, remember, because it was like ten
people on stage and then it was I think we
were sitting in front of like with five hundred and
six hundred people. But it was so much going on
that day.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
No, Yeah, it was really fun. I had a good
time at that.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
I actually really enjoyed that festival, the one here in
New York and the one in South Beach. But you
you have your own festival, So congratulations on that. I
was talking about it when you first announced it. So
let's talk about that here. Family Day festival. And one
of my favorite city is New Orleans.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
To me, it's either one A or one next to Chicago.
Chicago's also one of my favorite cities, but yet New
Orleans is has a special place my heart and I
can't wait for It's gonna be dope.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Is it because of the food New Orleans.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
The people, the atmosphere, the summers there, the way that
you don't have to be from there and you can
engulf in the culture immediately once you get there. People
just super endearing. You feel like you're somebody cousin. You've
only been there once. I'm not from there. My mom
my mom's side of the family has a lot of
roots in New Orleans, but I'm from Detroit. But I

(01:30):
feel like when I go to New Orleans that I'm
part of them.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
I got to ask you this because I was just
in Chicago last week and my girl, Chella, we be
arguing and Jeremiah.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
I'm over the pizza in Chicago.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Over the pizza because you know, New York pizza versus
Chicago pizza was Chicago.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Is she from Chicago? Yes, Real Chicago locals that I know,
my sister, she's been living in Chicago since twenty eleven
or twenty twelve. Real locals that I know don't eat
Chicago style pizza. Right, eat either Italian Fiesta.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Oh my got she bought me some Italian Fiesta.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
Which is like a super tavern style thin crust that
deep dish that people see. I feel like that's a
lot on movies. Yeah, every local that I know don't eat.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
I don't like deep dish pizza.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
See, I'm from Detroit. We do deep dish, and I
feel like we do deep these better than a lot
of places only because it's square and it's crispy on
all edges.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
You know, Detroit actually has amazing food. You know. I
go to Detroit a lot.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
I have a property in Detroit, and I always tell
people because when people don't go to Detroit and they
don't understand, like different, what's been happening there with the
food scene, but not just the food scene, but like lounges,
just everything, And then when they go there, like this
is amazing, completely different, You'll have amazing restaurants too.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
So I was born a raisor. I didn't move out
of Detroit so I was eighteen and I'm in Vegas.
But for my entire childhood, like I was born and
raised on the West side of Detroit. I think that's
why I have such an endearment to the South and
to Midwest in general, because I feel like we all
just distant cousins. I feel like Chicago is a distant
cousin in Detroit, and I feel like New Orleans is
our southern cousin, and people there again, you just felt

(03:11):
like you a cousin. That's why May sixteenth, we're gonna
have a full family music festival and it's ten performers,
we having music and food from the area itself, and
then we having a lot of local businesses and this
is the first of it's kind where we're not charging
no local businesses anything.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Was that always the plan to not charge because I
saw the video where you posted that and let people
know that there was not going to be a charge
for businesses, because a lot of times it is hard
right you want to promote your business. I've seen people
complain about situations where they paid but they didn't even
make back the money and the time off that you
have to take from work and you got to hire
the people and bring your product, and sometimes it could

(03:49):
be a loss.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
If you a small business and you don't have nobody
to maintain a storefront while you're out in a different
state you have to close down for the day, so
you not only lose the profit that you was gonna
make that day, but you also a profit if you
don't make your money back at the festival, because usually
it's vendor fees, is equipment fees, uh, and then the
festival itself takes up to twenty to thirty percent off

(04:10):
top of anything, which the ideal of it is so
the festival can make money. To yeah, because a lot
of times that's how they make money. But in our case,
I wanted to put the business first and the profit second.
Where really the profits like third or fourth to be
honest with you, because to me, I think the profit
will come. And I've always moved this way. That's why

(04:32):
even when I've always done food for I've never charged
a small business for any reviews or anything, because I
think if it's meant for you, it's gonna be for you.
And this is the same thing that I have conversations
daily with with my team that if it's gonna happen,
it's gonna happen, the money gonna come. All we gotta
do is be ourselves and whatever's gonna come out of
that is gonna come. I'm not about chasing a dollar.
I'm more about chasing the experience. And I want everybody

(04:54):
to come to actually be able to enjoy it, and
I want the vendors themselves to be able to enjoy it.
Cension of the food tour. With the food tour, we
literally go around, we try food, and God wouldn't live
if there's a line that's gonna be wrapp around the corner.
It's a line gonna be wrapped on the corner, but
it's not gonna be add a cost to the restaurant itself.
And that's the exact same thing here.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
I love that that is really uplifting small businesses. And
you got my guy, Larry Morrow.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
That's one of the Listen.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
I remember when he had his Morrow's.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Actually his mother used to also have a restaurant on
the golf course and I went to that with him
before and then when Murrow's lit popping, and then he.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
Has expanded splice mangoes. Yeah, Larry is one of the kind.
That's why I say it feel like family, because that's
somebody I can literally call and we talk for hours
as if we use cousins.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
Listen, the reason people in New Orleans know me is
because of less That's yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Like we both have our.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
Birthdays in January, so every year we would do our
birthday party together, and it helped me so much when
it was time for us to get syndicated. You know,
in New Orleans, that's always been huge. Shout out to
uptown Angela in New Orleans too, it just was her birthday.
But I'm excited that you're doing it there because I
feel like that is a city that is known for
its hospitality, but also.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
Clearly for the food.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
We always say, me and my friends have this joke
like when we go to New Orleans who like diets off.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
I'm a button of pants. As soon as I get there,
I'm getting lose. Bring some sweat tight, no tight. But
that's what I love about New Orleans is that that's the culture.
People expect you to come and do that. They expect
you to come and have a ball, uh and be
able to eat.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
Food and get them dairies too, and.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
Get them doacries. That is amazing. That's why I'm super
excited because again, even speaking on Larry specifically, he's really
helped us curate what that looks like inside the city.
So it's not just something that we're just setting up
and we're just trying to get a profit. It's specifically
from the community for the community, and it's an event
that I think is gonna be amazing.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
And that's what your first food tour what is?

Speaker 3 (06:51):
That was the very first place we ever did food tour.
Vegas counts as my start because that's where I've started
doing full reviews in general. But the first time I
ever guy on the road and travel to a different place,
it was New Orleans.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
You know, Vegas is interesting to me because I never
really have eaten off the strip.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
Vegas got great food. Shout out to Vegas if that's
one of those places you have to know. If you
know Vegas has amazing food. Yeah, even after we traveled
and went to al a bunch of different places, different countries,
I still will put Vegas in like my top seven,
Top seven, top eight.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
And it's also a vibe, like the restaurant turns into
a club.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
You never know what's gonna happen in Vegas.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
If you eat off the shrip. It's a lot of
diversity because it's a melting pot because you got it's
like here in New York, you got cultures from everywhere,
you got people from everywhere, you got different foods from
every background. It's just the only difference is that it's
really hard to find once you get off the shrip
because you really got to know where you're going. Because
the city of Vegas is so small, people don't realize

(07:50):
that until you get there, is that it's the shrip
and then it's maybe like three or four cities within Vegas.

Speaker 4 (07:55):
And that was it.

Speaker 3 (07:56):
You know.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
I've seen a lot of reports about how Vegas is
struggling now because tourism is down so much business is
in general. I want to say, I'm from Brooklyn and
it breaks my heart sometimes to see like restaurants that
I've been going to that are shutting down.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
And I know that's been.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
Happening, you know, across the United States right now, because
the restaurant business is one of the hardest businesses to
keep going. I have a coffee shop, and even having
a coffee shop is hard something. Yeah in Brooklyn, it's
in Brooklyn, and we open went in Hireland recently too.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
It's called coffee uplifts people.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yeahrand also coffeehift people.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
But I also understand how hard it is. I used
to have a juice bar.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
Now I have this coffee shop, and I know you yeah,
because I like to do things and coffee is also
healthy for people, which people have to understand. But you know,
having employees, making sure that you get the right amount
of product, making sure that when somebody comes in. You
want everyone to have a good experience. And that's something
that also you keep people on point when it comes
to that, because people will treat Keith Lee a certain

(08:56):
way and then treat somebody else a whole other way.

Speaker 3 (09:01):
Yeah, the same experience I get. I want my mom
to be able to go in the next day and
get that same experience. I want that experience because I
got seventeen million, or even if I got two million,
I want the experience that's based on I'm coming to
spend my money because I earn my money the same
way everybody else to earn any money, you know how
I want.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
To I had tried to start. I think I'm gonna
do it.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
You inspire me because I go to a lot of
local small businesses and you know, and I always like,
will do a little post when I go there, and
they're always appreciative of that.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
Like I don't see that more than you think.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
And people have told me that, like people say, yo,
when you came here, and.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Then people will go to restaurants and be like, I
saw Angela post this, but I want to do it,
like on the level of that to do it so
oddly enough, funny enough. A while ago I had started
a page, but I got to get into it.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
It's called the Eat Out. It's you know, hard, yeah,
hard hard. It's like I just.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
Want to go and like post these businesses. But there's
a different level, like, I know, you did not expect
this to take off the way that it did, and
so it just puts like a different expect because I
can't even imagine what it's like for you when you're
like I just want to eat you.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
Know you Angeli. So if you go if you was
to go to a restaurant, it would be very similar.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
Different though, because it's different because people look at you.

Speaker 3 (10:12):
Like if you go to a radio conference and you
are in the space of people who are upcoming into
radio or well established in radio, you gonna have the exact.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
Sa him Dan's email.

Speaker 3 (10:27):
Yeah, I got I got a guy who Marcelle, who's
my head coordinator. I give him everybody like that's got to.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
Talk to me and be like, yeah, A lot of
people hit him up.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
You're from the DMV area.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
I don't want to know smoke. I already know where
it's going. I know we're here.

Speaker 4 (10:46):
You were here. What was that twenty twenty four you
came to D and V so I know that you.
I know that you liked really like the Drunken Nights spot. Yeah,
what did you love about that spot? One?

Speaker 3 (10:56):
The authenticity from I've never really been to jama so
I can't say it's authentic Jaak and food, but the
Jamaican food I've had had one. I tasted the Scotch
bond and almost everything that they put it in. And
I feel like that's very rare for fast food spots
or casual dining spots, is that you actually tasting reasons
that they say this in there, Because especially when it

(11:18):
comes to spice, a lot of times I'm the same,
and a lot of times they either pull it back
all the way or they like overkill it to where
you can't taste anything else. I think that Play Dark
Knight was a very good example of balance and flavors.
And I also just like the variety of Jamaica food
that was available. I really like d C. And that's
and I think that's the I think that's because because

(11:40):
I think that that's a misconception. I feel like the
second you said DC, I felt that me of you
is like, okay, but I do I enjoyed DC. But
I think the same thing that I said there still
stands for me. Is that and I feel like being there.
You can agree or you might disagree that there is
a very big drinking culture when it comes to DC,

(12:01):
and especially brunch is overweight by almost everything day parties
is overweight. And that's coming from somebody who lived in
Vegas a ten years. And it's like when you want
to go get food on the trip, That's why I
avoid the shrip because if you want to get food
on the trip, you got to go through ten day
party flyers to even figure out what men they got
that day, and you gotta go through the menu is
usually at the bottom and it's topless girls. It's girls

(12:24):
and dresses the girls and getting drunk, and bottom of
is bottom momosa, bottom of moms, and it's that NonStop.
In every page that was getting sent to me, like
I would say, like eighty five to ninety percent of
them was all bottomless momosa. That's all. It was the
kids there, and it's like, and I don't drink, so
it was hard for me. And when I said that,
I feel like it was immediate like, oh, he don't

(12:45):
like DC, and that's not the case. We had some
amazing food do over though. We had great Ethiopian food there,
which was incredible. We had great it was amazing ethio
and food with our hands. We had a full family dinner. Uh.
The people over there were amazing. Uh. I love d C.
Don't give me.

Speaker 4 (13:05):
I was about to say, I gotta ask you, what
is it about the carry outs that you didn't like
about d C?

Speaker 3 (13:09):
I like the carry outs though only I went to
one that they said was the wrong one. No, oh,
that's that's what you considered to carry out. Oh you
considered take out take out take out. I thought carry
out was the Chinese spot, the Chinese spots. The one
that we went to was really good. People assumed that
I went to z and Os. I've never said I
went to uz and Oz said. I didn't say, I never,

(13:33):
I never what, I never declined or axcept the fact
that I went there. But So for me, the reason
why I was so adamant about not giving full critique
is because I genuinely feel like I couldn't be constructive,
and I respect it was gonna come from a place

(13:55):
of I don't like this, and I understand that my
taste buds aren't the end all be all, and I
understand the people's taste, but it's completely different than mine.
And if I was, I'm blessed enough to have a
large platform, and I understand the power of that, and
I don't take that lightly. So when it is something
that I'm not personally a fan of, I have to
be constructed. And a lot of it was is I

(14:16):
didn't personally like it, and to a point where I
was like, it's going to be overwhelmingly that I don't
like it, and it's not going to be a point
where you are paying attention to the spots that we
actually did enjoy it, and we actually did, we're blessed
enough to highlight. So I didn't want that to get
out weight. So I just came out to say it.
I'm not going to say anything because I can't say
anything instructor.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
It's so interesting because of course people are very you
know when you go to a certain like if you
go to the Bay Area or wherever, like very everybody's
very like this is my.

Speaker 3 (14:47):
And I respect that. I respect that because again, nobody
knows how much hard work goes behind own a restaurant
until you own a restaurant. And I'm blessed enough to
be able to see it. But I still don't even
know to the full extent because I don't have my
own restaurant. But being in the business space now and
like sit throwing our first festival and really putting the

(15:08):
CEO hat on is stressful, the most stressful, so I
understand it. And that's why for me, I don't feel
like it's fair to come out and be like I
don't like this. I don't y'all shouldn't go there.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
I tend to get people grace too.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
I was in Detroit and I went to this restaurant
that was just opening, and when I tell you, we
waited for hours for our food, I mean, but it
also just opened. And then I think that surprise, and
then something happened with the chef where they said the
chef didn't come in that.

Speaker 3 (15:35):
I mean, it was like that sound like Detroit. It's
gonna be some of the best fool you have had
your life.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
But yeah, I was trying to give grace.

Speaker 2 (15:41):
I mean my friends were like two of them left,
like I'm not like it literally took so long for
our food to come.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
And then they emailed me like can we do it?

Speaker 4 (15:48):
Do over?

Speaker 2 (15:48):
Because I do like to also go and like show
my support and pay. But what I can appreciate is, like,
there's a Fixings in Detroit now, right, Kevin Johnson owns
that he has one in LA I think in Tulsa,
So that's the.

Speaker 3 (16:00):
Spot that's by uh fixes is in La by the Brow.

Speaker 2 (16:07):
What's it called La Live Area? Yes, yes, yes, so
there's one in Detroit now.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
That's amazing.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
But I remember when I first opened, it wasn't like,
you know, it's hard because even we always have to
give new restaurants grace.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
But now it's like one of my favorite places to go.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
But sometimes it's just so hard because if you go
to early and critique a place, they're still trying to
get it together. And so I'm always like, because I
know how hard it was for us when we first open,
so I always take that into consideration. Like a lot
of the struggles that can go on, especially in a
coffee shop. Things break, things need to get like.

Speaker 3 (16:38):
That's the part where Keith Lee being Keith Lee comes
into play, because if I only got five days to
be in the city, yes, and you asked me to come,
and then I don't have any of that backstory or
any of that knowledge. Uh. And the only way I
can get that knowledge is come in and tell you
I'm there, which is gonna garner and me getting a
different experience. I'm left to just being a consumer, and

(16:58):
as a consumer, I'm gonna give you my honest opinion
and then it get I get the push back later
and like you hate DC.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
You know I don't you pay attention to reviews when
you see like, because before I go to a place,
sometimes I'll just like, let me go look at their
reviews and see what's in the area, what has good reviews.
But sometimes I feel bad because I'll see places that
I know I like and they don't have necessarily the
best reviews.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
How do you I think a lot of it is
one is all opinions based and every again everybody taste
well it's different. But I think a lot of it
can also be based on where you are, because there's
some markets that are a lot harder than other markets,
right like, for example here, I feel like it's a
lot easier for a restaurant to get bad reviews because
people are very critical, because people know what they like,

(17:42):
and a lot of people leave reviews when they're mad immediately.
So I think it's I think it all depends on
where you are. I feel like some places reviews hold
more weight, but ten, at the end of the day,
is everybody's opinion. I feel like if you somewhere in
the South, nine times out of ten, people in the
South gonna give you as much grace as they possibly can.
So if they leave in some kind of like heinous

(18:02):
review is probably warranted.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
Now we were talking about this carry out earlier, the takeout.
I remember I had hit up Chef Kwame from Tatiana's
because ray J went to his restaurant and wanted to
and he went he loved a particular item on the menu,
so he was like, oh, can you see if I
can get this to go? And he was like, we
don't do takeout and so but that's because he said,

(18:25):
the quality of takeout, yeah, is so different than you.

Speaker 3 (18:27):
Can which I respect that. Yeah, I will much rather
I was just having this conversations. It's something that we
shooting off air. I would much rather a restaurant say
these are out of our capabilities versus saying we have
these capabilities. This you can order it, but if you
don't like it, it's your fault for ordering takeout. I
will much rather restaurant just say, hey, my food isn't
meant for takeout, so we're not offering takeout.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
What are your rules for sending things back?

Speaker 3 (18:51):
Because now or before?

Speaker 1 (18:56):
But tell me before and then what it is. Now.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
It's hard because now I don't really go sit down
in spots, even if we're doing like family dinners. If
we do family dinners, I won't send anything back because
I don't want to ruin to move. If I personally
don't like it, I'll either give it to somebody else
or I just want to say nothing about it. Yeah,
I'll let it be. But before I absolutely would would

(19:22):
try and handle it with grace because I used to
work in festival so I worked at Jimmy John's and
I also worked at H and M, so I've done
a lot of customer service work, so I understand. Yeah,
I understand that the background of it, and I think
that's a misconception that a lot of people get that
I'm just somebody who randomly start reviewing food and telling
people my opinion. I've been a professional fighter for ten years,

(19:44):
and as a professional fighter, I had almost every job
you can think of. Like I said, I worked at
H and M. I was a lifeguard for three years.
I worked at I worked as a personal trainer. I
worked at a soup kitchen called Sweet Tomatoes. I worked
at Jimmy John's, I work right here. I was everywhere,
man everywhere. So I've worked in so many different spaces

(20:05):
with so many different people, and I've been in almost
every position at these jobs. So I understand what it
even as a professional fighter, you're an independent contractor, So
I understand what that feels like to be an independent
contractor or somebody who if you don't get it done,
is not gonna get done.

Speaker 4 (20:19):
You've changed a lot of lives with your presence just
being there, as well as your reviews. Have you ever
you keep in contact with the people's restaurants that you
go to.

Speaker 3 (20:27):
Absolutely, Okay, I can give you all the little exclusive
because we about to drop it. I think either today
or tomorrow. The vendors list for the festival, A lot
of the vendors that are well, I wouldn't say a
lot of them, but I have a core list of
vendors because this is an inaugural festival. I have a
core list of vendors that we have visited on the
food tour that if you ever watched the video on mine,
he was like, Owe, that look good. Nine times out
of ten they're gonna be there. And for this vendors

(20:49):
list specifically, we have the Puttery, which is a place
in Perland, Texas.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
Oh, you change your life and I remember that. I
just want to say, yeah before you continue that story.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
You know, really touched my heart.

Speaker 2 (21:02):
She was getting on a bad day, maybe only a
couple of customer rights. Wow, yeah, and you went there
there was only like five people. I feel like, I remember.

Speaker 3 (21:10):
That was maybe like three and one of my family.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
And the next the next day she says she had
like one hundred and fifty people.

Speaker 3 (21:18):
And she's now on her second location. She has a
food truck. She was on the verge of closing that
one location, but now she is scaled to three different locations.
And I said, she's gonna be at the festival, and
she's a person that is on my personal list that
no matter where we are in the world, I'm always
going to extend olive branch to make sure that she
if she's available, she will for show beater.

Speaker 4 (21:38):
Where do you get your humility from? Like? Has it
always been there? Was it there somewhere?

Speaker 3 (21:43):
I punched the face for ten years that is, yeah,
I got pushed the face. But that'll teach you for
show that no matter And I think if you've never
been a fighter before, we've never been in that space.
It's one of the most unrewarding slash rewarding jobs because
you can work for six months straight and do everything right,

(22:06):
eat right. You can train every day, full times a day.
You had the best trainer, the best uh post workout.
You can do anything exactly how it's supposed to be done,
take the book and even go out there and get
knocked out in the fresh round, right, So it's like
you have no control over it. So it's like I
understand what it feels like to have to relinquish control.
That's why I believe in God so strong, and I

(22:29):
understand what that feels like to know even in this position.
This not me. I don't have no control over this.
If it was up to me, I would be a
professional fighter right now. I always thought that I was
going to be my path. I never in a million
years thought.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
That years disorders.

Speaker 3 (22:48):
Yeah, for a long time. All through high school, I
would have to make weight. And my freshman year, I
was one hundred and six pounds on hundred and I
was making weight at one o three. And it's hard
to tell, respects, hard to tell a kid who's fort
eleven and one hundred and six pounds he's overweight. But
in my mind I was overweight. And I used to
literally eat one jar apple sauce for an entire week.

Speaker 4 (23:09):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (23:09):
And by the time the entire week, and when eating theirs,
I went drinking the water. I was eating food. I
would pass meals, I would pass dinner. Twenty twenty two
was the first year that I enjoyed Thanksgiving in my
entire life.

Speaker 1 (23:20):
Wow, that's not that long ago at all.

Speaker 3 (23:22):
It was the first time that I actually sat down
and had a meal with the rest of my family.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
That's wild, but that's amazing, Like you have to yeah, no, honestly,
to see how you're enjoying this to see where you
came from and how you got to.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
Hear that's a huge deal.

Speaker 3 (23:36):
Yeah, I'm chunky and I love it.

Speaker 1 (23:38):
Yeah, they're not chunky.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
This is the biggest I've ever been in my life.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
Not chunky.

Speaker 3 (23:41):
Yeah. I used to buy one hundred and thirty five pounds,
so now walking around and went eighty one eighty five
like this, this I got my grown man, Wait on.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
Would you okay? You know they do all these celebrity fights,
and if they a.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
Great question, if they realize that's why you angel.

Speaker 4 (23:56):
Nobody say.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
Where gonna pay you? You know, some millions of dollars.

Speaker 3 (24:04):
It's not off the table, the money for you.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
You actually could get in the ring and do something.

Speaker 3 (24:09):
Yeah, it's not off the table. I love what Jake
Paul is doing in the space. I think it has
to be acknowledged that he is doing an amazing job
for not only for creators in the space, but people
in general, women in general. I love what he's doing
in the space. Is there a world in which we
ever jump on a car? Maybe?

Speaker 1 (24:27):
So are they asking you? Because I can't see that
they wouldn't.

Speaker 3 (24:30):
Uh not conversations directly with him, But of course the
conversations that are still thrown around. I still had an
older brother who's actively fighting Kevin. Uh huh, he's actively
looking for a fighter as we speak.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
Is he a good or are you still he could
thrown down?

Speaker 3 (24:45):
And that's why I would like him to just cook
if you ask me, I don't want to see nobody
else get funched the face. I would like him to
just good or if he was, his food is amazing.
His ox sales are a ten for show. Okay, I
said that we had that day. We're not a tent
at the moment. But he's made him again and made
a lot of adjustment and he's gonna be at the festival.
He gonna be at the festival, and he's gonna bring

(25:05):
him to me, and that's gonna be well. I want
you to try, and I want you to come to
the festival. You don't oh, you don't eat? Okay? Yeah, yeah,
I would love for you to. You would, though I would.
It's not okay. My wife's gonna be mad at me
for saying that.

Speaker 1 (25:19):
But you have to get back training though.

Speaker 3 (25:21):
Yeah. She she wanted me to be done. She loves
the idea of me being able to and when I
say chunky. It's just me being able to not worry
about my weight and be able to just be like
I can eat something and not have to worry like,
oh I'm getting big or because that for ten years,
will fifteen years, that literally after every meal was like

(25:42):
how much do I weigh? Like I would jump on
the scale after every single meals to do no matter
where I was at, no matter what what was. It
could be vacation, it could be like said holidays, it
could be Thanksgiving, and after every single meal, I'm jumped
on the scale. You don't drink, you think that's one
of the reasons. I also come from a line enough
of a lot of my family drinks, and they drink heavy,

(26:03):
and I've seen what that looks like and I don't
want to smoke.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
Yeah, that's interesting to live in Vegas like you did.

Speaker 3 (26:10):
I've been so all around you. I've been sober for
since twenty twenty two, twenty one, no before then, since
yeah like twenty no, twenty eighteen eighteen. Yeah, no, I
haven't had any anything that has alcohol that's not cooked off. Wow,

(26:32):
no alcohol, no weed, No, because I used to smoke
a lot, so no alcohol. Yeah, I haven't done anything
that is I barely even take medication.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
I don't take medications. Yeah, trying to figure out what
do I need to eat?

Speaker 3 (26:46):
Yeah? I try and stay for a lot of things.

Speaker 4 (26:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:49):
Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (26:50):
What where do you where do you get a lot
of your your choices? Like when you go into cities
where how do you know where to go?

Speaker 3 (26:57):
The people? Uh, that's why I give all of That's
why I always say I'm not the superhero in this
case is the people who are willing to stand out
in front of these lines, or stand out in front
of these businesses and support these local businesses, because those
are the same people who give me these local suggestions.
Because it's again it's places I've never been to before,
and I think the only way that you can get
the really experience is by talking to people who's really

(27:19):
from there and whenever we go to place. We just
announced that we're doing a food tour leading up to
this festival specifically, and it was between three options. It
was between Lafayette, Mississippi, and Alabama.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
Oh yeah, people got to vote. I saw that one.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
Over thirty thousand votes for Lafayette. Oh wow, So I
can announce it here. We officially going to Lafayette.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
Oh wow, that's great.

Speaker 3 (27:42):
So when I make the full announcement on all my socials,
it's going to be literally me asking where to eat,
and that's trying to get all my suggest.

Speaker 4 (27:49):
What advice do you have for restaurants when you're coming
into town to make the most of the experience.

Speaker 3 (27:56):
Give the same experience that you would anybody. I think
that's one of the biggest things that all especially if
we go to a smaller city like a Lafier or
like when we did bat and Rouge uh, or when
we do like places in North Carolina. Uh. It's easier
said than done for our restaurants not to be on
alert or stand by because a lot of people in
the city are talking about it. But I think when

(28:17):
you try to prepare, that's usually in my experience, when
I have the least favorable experiences versus when you just do.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
What's gonna happen, it is gonn happen because you send
the family.

Speaker 3 (28:29):
Yeah, you're not even gonna know it's me. So when
you start doing that and you start giving different people,
it is one person that nobody has ever seen, one
person nobody has no idea that I'm related to.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
I want somebody to you.

Speaker 3 (28:41):
I'll show you afterwards, y'all. But y'all got to promise
me that, y'all don't. It's one person that with them
just in general.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
Can you imagine there's they got it, but they got it,
they got to set it up like where they bring
out like some nasty food, and that would be so
I think that would be to see.

Speaker 3 (28:59):
What had had. I've had a couple of them where
I felt like I was here breaking. I've definitely had.
But again, everybody taste what is different. So I try
and be as non biased. But I would not lie
to you and say I'm not human and say I
had some food, and I'd be like, what are we eating?
What are we doing? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (29:20):
How do you feel about picking?

Speaker 2 (29:21):
We were talking about this before you got here, because
I was saying we were talking about conk, right, and
like there's a coat, Yeah, I wish I could and
so and like lapster and how people can like pick
their own. And I've always felt so bad when I
see like people who have like me, no seeing the
animals alive.

Speaker 1 (29:41):
Oh yeah yeah, and you have to pick like I
want that one.

Speaker 3 (29:43):
It's crazy. We just we went to Coast Freaka for
my wife's birthday, and I picked fresh oysters from her
from the for her from the ocean. Uh. I didn't
grab him. I had one of our local tour guys
grabbing for him, and he literally was like shutting him
off the rock with a knife. He was like put
the knife in between them, like plu, come off, grab
them and break the shell. And it would still be
moving and he would just grab it and he'd be like, oh, yeah,

(30:05):
it's a big oyster and it was like this big
and he was just taking it out of the way.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
Does you feel bad a little bit?

Speaker 3 (30:10):
But again, I think I think it's the circle of life.
It's a circle of life. I'm a meat eater, so
it's a true life.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
Well, I mean, but you do eat healthy though, yeah,
you try to outside because you try so many different things.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
Do you get it? Like your cholesterol checked all the time,
and I just did.

Speaker 3 (30:29):
I just got everything checked. I'm again, I'm very I
believe in God, I believe in Jesus. I pray a lot. Uh,
and that has always been my fallback. I'm I'm black
at the end of the day, you know, I fall back.
I'm a prayer about it. I don't need nobody to
tell me what's going on with me. God know what's
going on with me. But the older I'm getting, I'll

(30:49):
be thirty this year, so the older I'm getting, I'm
slowly getting to that, Like, Okay, I have to be
an adult. I have to go get things checked.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (30:56):
And I just found out that my vitamin D is
very low. Okay, and without what I was told, within
a black community is a very rampid thing, and it
can cause depression, it can cause anxiety I have right here.
I just brought my vitamin D.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
De feels with yeah every day, because you're right, it's
low for us.

Speaker 3 (31:14):
And I never would have associated that to being because
I've always had social anxiety and I've always had depression seasonally,
but I never would associate anything that like a vitamin,
to be a cause of that. But I have been
taking my vitamin D. It's helped, you know.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
It's interesting also your whole story about this journey that
you've been on and how instrumental your wife has been
and keeping you on track even when you didn't have
money in the bank, you didn't know what was going
to happen. Yeah, and for a lot of people like
that can be financial issues can be the number one
reason that marriages don't last, relationships don't work.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
But she really held you down during that time.

Speaker 3 (31:52):
My man don't make six figures. I don't want them
as all of those conversations, and I'm blessed enough to
have somebody who was with me when I say broke,
I'm talking about doing uber and doordas just to put
food on the table, and then taking that same the
money that's left over to put gas in the car
the next day to drop her off at work in
her car, and then going to the gym and then
coming back because my car got stolen so I didn't

(32:14):
have a car.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
I mean, what conversations was she having you with you
at that time, because imagine this, like you have a baby,
she's pregnant, you know you're and she's like, I'm sure
she's concerned too, because you're concerned.

Speaker 3 (32:28):
To be honest with you, there were not many conversations
to be had because we just prayed about it. We
prayed about it together, and which what I always will
appreciate her fault and I always have is that it
never felt like I was in that predicament because it
felt like we was doing it together like. It didn't
feel like, oh, he broke and he got to figure

(32:50):
it out. It felt like, no, we in it together.
We got a baby. We gonna make the best of
this situation, and our daughter is never gonna feel any different.
Like I'm blessed enough to say my daughter life hasn't changed,
or my daughter's life haven't changed dramatically enough to where
they feel the difference. They might a little bit now
because we just got a chef and now they got

(33:10):
stuff that's a little different. Yeah, and now that's a
little different. When we go to Disney, we get a
guide so they can walk around and go through the rise.
But the core of what our family dynamic hasn't changed.
And that same love and that same attention that they
were getting at when we were staying in a one
bedroom apartment or two bedroom apartment when we's own food
stamps is the same love and affection that they get

(33:33):
nowt And I attest a lot of that to my
wife because she was the person who always kept me grounded,
and she was the person who literally, no matter what
situation I'm in, it didn't feel like that situation.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
I want to Yeah, I'm asking you that, and I'm
glad you brought up like all the stuff that people
say online, what would you say to people like when
you Sometimes we see these clips and they're like if
your man's not doing this, or different.

Speaker 3 (33:53):
Strokes with different folks. Everybody has different personal goals and purposes,
and I think it's very important. I'm very big on boundaries.
I think it's very important if that's your boundary, to
stand on your boundary. I'm just blessed enough that at
the time that when we met, we were at a
very similar space and we had a very similar mindset,
and we decided to do it together versus separately.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
You know, another thing that you're doing to prepare for
the future is now investing and other businesses and Brooklyn
Dumpling shout out to the status who also owns Brooklyn
chop House with my guy Don Pooh. That's a company
you invested in, and I'm sure you get a lot
of opportunities to invest.

Speaker 1 (34:31):
What made that one special for you?

Speaker 3 (34:34):
The way they move. I really like the way that
they intentionally picked their partners. They just got into Yankee
Stadium and then they are technique. I love how they
do things to where they not boxed in a lot
of places that would do something like a dumpling will

(34:57):
only be in certain place certain spaces. They push in
the boundaries. They at sports games, they are at Sea World,
they are gonna be at the festival. They in different
spaces to where you don't have to just eat a
hot dog. You don't have to just eat a burger.
You can eat fresh dumplings, and you can eat something
that actually tastes good in my opinion, And I just

(35:17):
love how business for it they are. And we had
one conversation and it literally just was like a.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
Bra and the technology of it too, I find that
to be fascinating how you can just order it and
you can just go to like a locker.

Speaker 3 (35:29):
And they very open to to move in when it
comes like you said, when it comes to technology, but
they very open to ideas. We are in the process
of working on something together and it literally is just
as seamless as us having a conversation. I work very
well when it's when things are intentional, and I work
very well when my family can be on the forefront,

(35:50):
and that has always been like the top of mission
since we've been working with each other.

Speaker 1 (35:54):
Now you also have a podcast going to be.

Speaker 3 (35:56):
Been working on a lot and then when you say
it out loud.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
So everything, and I know there's other things we don't
even know about yet that's still on the table, but
the podcast is launching with Box Media.

Speaker 3 (36:07):
So this year is I keep saying, my business building year.
The last four years I've been blessed enough to go
around and go to other businesses and be a platform.
This year is about longevity and in order to continue
doing what we've been blessed enough to do, is a
foundation that has to be set and this year is
setting that foundation. So building our IP. I think it's

(36:28):
very important to build a foundation of your own businesses
and your own things that you own personally that I
can pass out to my children, and this year is
specifically about that. Where it's the festival, the podcast. Like
you say, it's a lot of stuff that we're working
on behind the scenes that I can't announce yet, even
something that's leading up to the festival. We're working on

(36:49):
something really big. It's just really important to me that
we set things up for my kids because now I
got three of them and that's my world, so that
that's really important that I set something for them for
long term.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
How was doing the Spirit Tunnel for you?

Speaker 3 (37:03):
It was?

Speaker 1 (37:03):
It was crazy experience.

Speaker 3 (37:05):
It was crazy. It was the most nervous I've been
in a very long time. I don't really get nervous. Yeah,
I don't really get nervous. I was nervous. I ain't
gonna lie to you. It was even at one point.
I don't know if they some of the audio picked
it up, but it was a guy at the end
who would look more nervous than I did. And he
and he was struggling to stay on beat, like dad,

(37:27):
I said it out loud. I said, oh, he trying
to stay on beat. And if you go back and
watch it, you can hear me say at the end.
But I thought I said it quiet enough, it was
like only inside thought. But I said it real loud,
trying to he's just nervous. I am said, Oh, yeah,
I feel it's very on the spot. They do not

(37:48):
tell you how on the spot it is. As soon
as you walk out your green room, it's like everybody
outside the door immediately. It ain't no like you about
to walk down the tunnel, You're about to get ready.
The second you hit the corner. They just man it
was a super dove experience.

Speaker 4 (38:04):
I love how much of a visionary you are. What
are some of the goals that you have in the future,
Like where do you see yourself in like five years.

Speaker 3 (38:11):
If you would have asked me that last year, I
would have told you I didn't have any goals because again,
my focus has always been on small businesses, but I
have shifted a bit. When it comes to that, I
would say one of my goals is for this festival
that we're thrown to be the best festival on playing
Earth when it comes to an experience standpoint, when it
comes from a cultural standpoint, when it comes from breaking

(38:33):
boundaries and having people mad at us because we're doing
things that are different, like not charging any vendor fees.
I'm blessed enough to say I got some money in
my pocket. I'm not extremely wealthy yet, and I'm blessed
enough to say I'm doing things that people who are
extremely wealthy are doing. When it comes to not focusing

(38:54):
on costs, when it comes to not putting profit first,
because anybody that's doing the first year festival, you would
meediately thinking about making some money. Yeah, and my goals
in this is to make this the best festival money aside,
and eventually get to a point where I can make
some money, Eventually get to a point where I can
again make this to a point where I'm sitting side

(39:15):
stuff for my family, sitting side stuff for my kids.
I think it will get there in two or three years.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
I think so too, because I can imagine the sponsors.

Speaker 3 (39:23):
Yeah, I think I think it'll get there.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
That will come in too, so where you can still
have vendors come for free, but it's paid for by
these corporate sponsors that can handle that.

Speaker 3 (39:33):
That's what I've always said. I don't take money from
small businesses. I only take money from companies that have
marketing and budgets put to the side specifically for stuff
like this, and that's specifically what I want to do
in the space. And if I have to take the dime,
or my team over at Live Nation, who I'm partner with,
or Larry Morreau has to take that, I'm blessed enough
to have that team around me that's willing to take

(39:54):
that for the first year or so so we can
build something that's an empire for my children.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
I saw you're doing something with Popeyes too. Popeyes is actually.

Speaker 3 (40:05):
That's why you Angelia.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
They always tell you, and this is a fact when
you go to New Orleans, go to Popeyes because it
tastes different.

Speaker 3 (40:13):
Than it does Popeyes and Canes. Oh, yes, crazy because
they both Louisiana based. Yeah, we we working on something
with Popeyes right now. They let us come to the headquarters. Uh.
And when I tell you they made a full spread,
they made like she made some collar Greens that was
with the Popeye seasoning and she gave us the pot
liquor from the side of the collar graens and it

(40:35):
tastes like actual Popeye's chicken, but it was collar Greens.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
You know, kind of special.

Speaker 3 (40:43):
Stuff like that, except I don't. I don't take no
special treatment when it come to small businesses with any
business out there that has listening to I got a
marketing budget at the side, I'm coming to eat. I'm here.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
What's your favorite dumpling flavor inside?

Speaker 3 (40:57):
Oh Waggle. They have a waggle dumpling there that it's incredible,
you know about broke the double chop or in general,
Oh the Wagle for sure.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
I feel like they had an at a mame one
in the I haven't tried. Yeah, when you like eat
at Brooklyn Chopp House. That's my favorite.

Speaker 3 (41:12):
I like it and I like but yeah, the waggle.
I think the wagle also has a little bit of
trouble with it. Uh. But in general, I would say
my favorite dumpling in general is like a soup deupling.
I love a nice French onion. Yo, no French onion.

Speaker 1 (41:28):
I've seen that before. I've seen it on the menu, like.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
A gender chicken or like a hut bit of chili
oil on top.

Speaker 2 (41:43):
For me, because there's a lot of things I don't eat.
And I know you have a shellfish allergy, but I
don't need seafood.

Speaker 3 (41:48):
So what do you eat? Are you begging?

Speaker 4 (41:50):
No?

Speaker 1 (41:51):
I eat chicken, that's it. Yeah, I don't need pork.

Speaker 2 (41:54):
So are you vegetarian with chicken or well, that's definitely
not vegetating.

Speaker 3 (41:59):
What I'm saying vegetarian like a vegetarian based diet, but
you also eat it, yes.

Speaker 2 (42:03):
And there's sometimes that I will like not eat chicken
for a period of time, and because sometimes I feel
like I overeat it because you know, because of that,
So I feel like it's hard for me when I
go places because they get so disappointed and sometimes like that.
People will send out food to me, like, oh send
her to send her that, And I'm like.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
Imagine how it is when I say New Orleans is
one of my favorite places, if not my favorite place.
And I go sit down in the restaurant and they
bring me crawfish and oysters and I'm like, I can't
have it. But they'd be bringing me buckets the oysters
like I would love for them. Oysters specifically, I love seatfood.

Speaker 4 (42:36):
I guess I'm the only one here.

Speaker 3 (42:37):
That I'll give you all another you have plenty.

Speaker 4 (42:40):
I'll eat whatever you guys don't.

Speaker 3 (42:41):
I'll give you all another exclusive. We're gonna have an
oyster show down at the festival.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
Oh that's the perfect place here. We have people out here.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
There's that that restaurant in the hotel that everybody goes
to for oysters.

Speaker 3 (42:52):
Oh yeah, you got drag O's, you got acme, you
got moros? Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:59):
People love the fried oyster.

Speaker 3 (43:01):
Fried oyster oisters with the butt it.

Speaker 1 (43:03):
I just never had them.

Speaker 3 (43:04):
I love looking at him, I love smelling him. I do.
I love watching my family eat him because that's one
of the foods I eat. Vikers like, do them if
I could each of us. I know for a fact
I'll eat the oysters.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
Well, Kirk Franklin is going to be headlining, and of
course you got to have many fresh in the building.
That's going to be so big for family Day.

Speaker 3 (43:21):
And somebody for everybody. We got Schmorrow.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
I love going up here soon. By the way, I
just I can't wait for that.

Speaker 3 (43:27):
That's gonna be dope.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
I want to say that I was telling. I was
telling that I love some chamar the same and.

Speaker 3 (43:34):
I'm not and I'm not ashamed to say it's funny guy.
I'd be strolling like everybody else and he pop up
like everybody. I'm sure he pop up for everybody in
his room. And I think it's fourth wall that we
got a break when it comes to people that's in
the same space. We all watch each other, and a
lot of people get this misconception like, oh, you got
seventeen million followers, your for you page got to be

(43:56):
completely different. I'll be in the trenches if I for
you page probably look word everybody in. They be dropping
me off anywhere. I get dropped off at everybody house
and I love it. And I think to me, why
this festival is so important is because we can highlight
every single aspect of that of It's not just oh

(44:17):
we highlight the biggest artists or we highlighting only small artists.
We got a plethora and a range of so many
different spots that people can hit. If I want the
Wayians to stand up, then I want the Grandma house
to stand up. Then I want the young kids to
stand up. I want everybody. Grace's Corner is gonna be there.
I want everybody to have their moment and have the

(44:39):
time to have fun.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
Gracie's corner, that's Thewaiians, That's what he is.

Speaker 3 (44:46):
Hey, I got a little Wayian at heart. So I'm
about to be standing up with tomorrow. I'm about to
be standing up with self to Sean. Uh even Toby,
Toby go for everybody. If you don't know Toby, and
he is one of the best performers on the planet.
Uh and he he is genreless. I think there's no
one specific demographic that he not gonna have on their feet.

Speaker 2 (45:06):
Well, this is going to be great for the city,
but it's just great in general. For you know, I
love how you curated this. I trust Larry so much too.
Like you said, knowing how he gets down in the city.
Everybody respects him. He respects everyone, and so do you,
and so I appreciate just the way you've been doing things,
the way your brand has grown.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
I love this business, Keith Lee.

Speaker 2 (45:26):
That you're tapping into now because I feel like, you know,
like JUG said, you have so much humility, you know
when you step into different spaces, and I know sometimes
it's not easy because you do so much, and then
it's always like never enough sometimes where people will be like, oh, well,
how come you didn't do this, or how come you do?

Speaker 3 (45:43):
I just respect the craft. I respect any craft that
I'm getting involved in. I know I'm not a chef
by any means. I know, I don't. I'm not a
person who come from a culinary background. I just bring
my own personal life experience to everything I do, and
I take I take everything serious. I don't take a
single dollar people spend with us lightly. I don't take
the fact that I'm up here talking to y'all and
y'all are willing to talk to me, and y'all want

(46:04):
to talk to me. I don't take that lightly at all. Yeah,
everything with gratitude.

Speaker 1 (46:09):
Would you go to culinary school.

Speaker 3 (46:11):
That's what it's crazy said. Nobody asked me that before.
I'm gonna throw my brother on her bus for a second.
So that was my goal out of high school. And
I came home and I told everybody like, I'm going
to culinary school. And my brother was like, what are
you doing? Fo He's like, you're gonna be in a book.
Ninety percent of the time. You could just learn how
to cook on your own, and you could do it
by yourself. You don't need to go to culinary school.

(46:32):
Come to the gym and come fight with me. And
I ended up going to the gym and going to
fight with him. I culinary school. I've never told nobody
that before. I ain't family that I just.

Speaker 2 (46:44):
Had Victoria monet on here and she actually is finishing
culinary school.

Speaker 3 (46:49):
I've always thought about going back, but I wanted to
be from a place where I can really take my
time with it. And we blessed enough to be on
the road so much right now that school and I
sucked at school.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
I'm terrible, but sometimes if it's something you care about, if.

Speaker 3 (47:05):
It's something that you fare, yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:06):
You know, in school, you gotta do a lot of
things that you know you're not really, I.

Speaker 3 (47:10):
Would say, all right, were y'all good students?

Speaker 4 (47:12):
Yeah that was pretty good.

Speaker 3 (47:13):
You look, you gave me good student vibe, give me
scholar vibe.

Speaker 4 (47:18):
Wasn't playing that, ye was?

Speaker 1 (47:20):
I was a straight student.

Speaker 3 (47:21):
I get that. The only outcast. Huh yeah, goddamn, y'all
would have made fun of me when I was y'all
have been like bro yet him out the class. I
used to just show a hoodie on a sleep Southfield. Okay, yeah,
I was high. Yeah, but I'm blessed enough to have
parents that they wasn't playing that. So I lived on

(47:42):
joy with Evergreen all through high school and the school
I don't even know the name of the school over there,
but I was like right off her River Rouge. If
you're familiar with the west side of Detroit, I know
where I was, right off of where the L. George
is with a murder mac the McDonald's did everybody get
heard at. I was little right off X and nine
where t Grizzly from. My parents wouldn't let me go

(48:04):
to school there.

Speaker 1 (48:04):
They like, absolutely, Yeah, my parents did the same thing
to me.

Speaker 3 (48:07):
They sent me forty five minutes to southeast.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
What's the best coney in Detroit.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
El George's for sure, El Georgia. I don't even think
it's close. What would you say yours is?

Speaker 4 (48:16):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (48:16):
I don't know. You know what's crazy. As much as
I've been there, I never ate at Coney's.

Speaker 3 (48:20):
I don't even have to do a full Okay, after
the festival, I would love to do a full Detroit
food tour.

Speaker 2 (48:26):
Oh good, look, you could take me where you and
I can take you to places that I go to.

Speaker 3 (48:31):
Because while I'm here, I know you said you got
a coffee shop. Yeah, while I'm here, I would let
it go catch a coffee. Okay.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
Well, look, we actually have an event today at the
Coffee Show at five.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
We have a pop up. These two black women.

Speaker 2 (48:42):
They have an eyewear brand called Vontel and so we're
doing to pop up for their sunglasses. So you can
come before that or pop but I would love for
you to come and have some.

Speaker 3 (48:50):
Co I know we got like one thing love to
do after this, but we should be numb by five.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
Yeah it okay, Yeah, well I'll be there for sure. Okay.
Oh that's so exciting.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
Everybody, get ready, Keith, Well, thank you so much. I
really enjoyed having you here. I was so excited when
I saw that you were coming up and just the
organic way that your brand has grown into what it
is today.

Speaker 1 (49:15):
And I know that you prayed a lot and you
credit a lot.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
To that, and I think we all got to pray more,
and so that's something I've been doing too.

Speaker 3 (49:23):
So that's honored to be here.

Speaker 1 (49:24):
Let's see where I'm at next year.

Speaker 3 (49:27):
I told you when we met in Miami that this
is something that I really want to do.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
I thought you were just saying that I was dead serious.

Speaker 3 (49:33):
I don't really do a lot of interviews. Again, it's
this year. I'm getting a lot out of my show
because I understand what it takes to run a business,
and even past running the business, I like to talk
to people that I like, and you are one of those.

Speaker 1 (49:45):
People that means a lot to me. I'm so I'm
so happy to hear that. All right, perfect, Well, it's
way up