FUBU: The Evolution from Apparel to TV with CEO J. Alexander Martin

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Embark on a riveting journey with Sanya Hudson-Payne as she sits down with J. Alexander Martin, the innovative force behind FUBU and the For Us By Us Network, to uncover the rich tapestry of black-owned fashion brands and their place in the industry. From the origins of iconic labels to the personal branding that propels entrepreneurs forward, we uncover what it takes to establish and sustain a brand that transcends cultural boundaries. J. Alexander's profound insights and Sanya's fierce determination to redefine self-expression in a patriarchal society will leave you both enlightened and inspired.

This episode is a treasure trove for those seeking to understand the intricate relationship between black-owned businesses and the ever-evolving landscape of consumer culture. As we peel back the layers of black entrepreneurship, you'll learn about the unique challenges black designers face, the resurgence of interest in heritage brands like FUBU, and the delicate balance required when marketing products that align with racial identity. We also dissect the media industry's distinctions between black-owned and black-targeted platforms, unraveling the implications of ownership and audience targeting on the quest for authentic representation.

Tune in for an intimate look at the personal stories and professional insights of J. Alexander Martin. We explore everything from the importance of platforms like LinkedIn for professional networking to the vision behind the For Us By Us Network's original content and strategic partnerships. By the end of our conversation, you'll be privy to the complexities of black culture, the power of representation, and the potential of new media to truthfully portray the multifaceted lives of black individuals. Don't forget to subscribe and hit that notification bell for more stimulating discussions with exceptional figures like J. Alexander Martin.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:07):
This is not a video.
When I was coming out, we hadto go outside the city.
We had to go travel, go out oftown, beat down doors.
This was the first time Billhas ever gone on this set.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
He said here comes the token.
This is not a video.
And out of my mouth I said Fyou, the fans are asking for
positive women, you know, withfamily and business.
It's like you know that's whatwe bring to the show and yet
still it's like, oh, she'sboring.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
It's my real story.
This is really who I am.
I build myself off a dollar anda dream, without a man's help
without a basketball player.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Particularly, the patriarchal box says white
cisgender males have defined forus should be how we define
ourselves.
I didn't say it, that's whatwe're saying.
It's free to have you and thebulletin.
Welcome everyone.
You're now tuned into anotheramazing edition of signing on

(01:08):
air.
I'm your host, sonia Hudson-Pain, and before we get to today's
episode, I need you to do me afavor.
I forgot to mention this earlyon in the last episode.
Make sure you subscribe.
Subscribe to sign you on aircelebrity interviews where I
unpack your pivotal moments andmilestones.
Sign you on your streams acrossevery major streaming platform.

(01:30):
If you're watching this onYouTube, not only subscribe, but
make sure you hit the littlenotification bell.
That way, every time I uploadan all new sign you on air
celebrity interview, you'll bethe first ones to know.
Now today's guest super, superexcited because, if you caught
the last episode, a focus of myconversation was about black

(01:51):
owned versus black targeted.
So to keep in line with thatconversation, I have the CEO of
the for us by us network.
You remember that?
For us by network, fooboo.
He is also one of theco-founders of the multi-billion
dollar brand fooboo.
Let me just run off a list ofhis accomplishments, titles,

(02:14):
accolades.
Okay, like I said, his name isJay Alexander Martin.
He is the founder and executivevice president of the billion
dollar apparel brand fooboo.
He's a TV host and producer,public speaker, personal
branding consultant, creativedirector, author, humanitarian
and, like I said, the CEO of forus, by us.

(02:37):
That's a lot.
That's a lot.
He's working hard.
I want to be married.
That's another topic.
That's another topic.
Okay, black man at the head ofthe business.
What I'm really interested inknowing because, remember,
fooboo was a leading brand inthe 90s there were that was the

(02:59):
error for black owned fashionbrands.
We have brands such as, like Isaid, fooboo, baby fat, cross
colors.
Who remembers cross colors?
I wasn't a real fan of crosscolors, but I digress.
I need she loved, love, love,love and each a love that.
I have a funny story about theNietzsche brand, but I'll say

(03:22):
that later.
Another black owned brand wasCarl cannot.
What happened to those brands?
Is it because the whitecorporations just say you know
what, y'all make a little bittoo much money and we just have
to dismantle and dissolve anddisenfranchise those brands?
But now we're really seeing anemergence of black led designers

(03:43):
, so there's space for us.
But I'm wondering is the marketbecoming over saturated?
Because we're at this point nowwhere, if you're saying black
owned, it just becomes like abuzzword.
People are not trusting blackowned brands.
I just want to know why?
Why?
Why?
If we don't support black ownedbrands, how can we lead

(04:04):
narratives, conversations, settrends, be icons?
So you know what the dissolvemeant.
And disenfranch, disenfranch,yeah, that's a SAT word.
Disenfranchisement Is that aword?
Of these black owned brands?
What happened to them?

(04:24):
Now going back to black ownedversus black target, first of
all, let me turn off my, becauseI don't know if you hear my
phone going ding.
That's the text messages comingthrough.
So, black owned versus blacktarget.
So there are two leading.

(04:44):
I don't know if they're leading, but yeah, when I talk to the
black folks in them.
There are two stream platformsthat the culture is always
talking about.
The first one is Zeus.
Yes, that is black owned by theMel plumber.
That's how you pronounce hisname.
Now, he's always been in theindustry.
His father was in televisionyears and years and years ago.

(05:07):
This is the fun fact.
So the Mel plumber, his father,also started the Christian
network with Jodecy singer.
What is it, mr Dalvin's father?
Did you know that?
Yes, even though Mr Dalvinturned into a gyraton pelvic
thrusting R&B singer, his daddywas heavily involved in the

(05:30):
church, so that's a fun fact.
So, on Zeus, you have showssuch as baddies, east Jocelyn's
cabaret or, in the word of thePuerto Rican princess Jocelyn's
cabaret.
Then you have Christian andblue face, crazy in love.
Now, how many of you are payingevery single month for
streaming of Zeus?

(05:55):
Me, me, me, me, me, me.
There are, I'm in love.
I'm in love with ratchet TV,don't get me wrong, but you
better believe that after that,I am listening to Roland Martin,
I'm turning to the Rio networkand I am just getting making
sure that my mind is being andfuel.

(06:18):
Let me tell you why I stumbledoff the word fair, because it
involves food and you know thefoodie.
I wake up like what am I goingto eat for dinner?
So anything that has to do witheating.
Something happens where justtimes just stop and my mouth
starts watering and I'm thinkingabout food, but I digress.

(06:42):
So Zeus network, like I said, itis leading and black owned and
also black targeted television.
But what my concern issometimes the lines become
blurred.
Now, for example, there'sanother streaming platform that
is leading the streamingplatforms for black targeted

(07:06):
content, do be.
Did you know, with all of theblack content you could stream,
my mama got an ebt card, my babydaddy got a new baby mama.
Oh, dirty mattresses and pissystairways All of that is on to

(07:30):
be black targeted content.
But did you know that to be isowned by a major white
corporation?
Now we know Fox is led, driven,shaped, by the Republican Party
, so there is intentionalmessaging just to make sure that

(07:51):
the content that they areproducing for us is dummy down.
It is a master designed planand we cannot be fooled at all.
Yes, to be owns is owned by thenetwork I want to battle.
Change how you now watch to be.

(08:13):
Will you continue to support?
I think that we have to demandbetter.
Like I said, there's nothingwrong with this type of content,
but I definitely want to see abalance.
I got to see a balance.
Just imagine, you know, if, allday long, the place of child in
front of a television For anentire day, and then the same

(08:38):
thing the next day for weeks,for months, for years, and all
that child is listening to andwatching is shoot them up, bang,
bang, gotcha.
That child is going to becomethe biggest scammer.
Why might ask to scan me AppleMacBook?
It is about the messaging, theconditioning that is happening

(09:04):
with our brains.
We have to be mindful.
I think that once you get to aplace that you can watch and
unpack and know that that reallyain't every single block in the
neighborhood, it's okay towatch.
But if that's all that you aredigesting and processing, I got
a problem.
We can't be friends.

(09:24):
We cannot be friends at all Atall.
So I just want us to do a lotbetter.
When we talk about fashion andthe black space in fashion, one
of the key components of beingsuccessful as a black designer

(09:48):
or a black content creator ishaving access.
That means building yournetwork.
But once you have access andonce you start talking about
what can be fixed, what can beimproved, what can be
strengthened for the blackculture, you are demonized, you

(10:12):
are silenced, you aredisenfranchised.
Look at what happened to DapperDan If you don't know who
Dapper Dan is, but if you arefrom NYC, like me, you
definitely know who Dapper Danis.
Dapper Dan back in the 80s and90s.
What he used to do was takeGucci inspired clothing.

(10:37):
He would use their logos andcreate these amazing outfits for
entertainers, those who arerappers, those who are celebrity
athletes, and also the localdrug dealers too.
They were wearing Dapper Dan,but as soon as Gucci found out

(10:58):
that this man was tapping to themoney bank, they silenced him.
They silenced him and then theystarted copying off of his
designs.
The black community said no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I just had to do that.

(11:20):
The black community stood upand Gucci could not deny it.
Gucci then hired Dapper Dan Iforgot the title I don't know if
it was some sort of likecreative consultant but they
gave him his proper, they gavehim his respect and then they
started to look at his design.

(11:43):
And once we start to stand upand demand better, the world
isn't going to join usautomatically, but then it
becomes inevitable when theydon't have a choice at all.
So I'm really encouraging youall to really look at this space
that we're in and ask yourselfis this black owned?

(12:06):
And I think that we have to besure that there is a balance,
because we don't want everythingto look like the black.
Now I'm going to say the blackbecause you could live, you know
, be a member of the HOA, theHome Owners Association.
That's your block.
Or you could be on 125th and StNick, that's your block.

(12:27):
I just want all blocks to berepresented, because I keep
saying, as blacks, we are not amodel, there is not one singular
experience.
But leave it up to them, chad,leave it up to them.
We are all just slow, singingand flowering and swing low
sweet cherry.

(12:48):
We are only one day removedfrom slavery.
And how dare you?
Just try to get ahead in life.
How dare you?
But we have the audacity, wehave the fortitude to keep
pushing, to keep challenging theculture.
I encourage you to keep doingso.
So we're going to take acommercial break with Instacart.

(13:08):
Make sure you do all yourshopping with Instacart, and
we'll be back with Jay AlexanderMartin.
Can I just run off hiscredentials again?
Let me get his black man hispropers.
He is the founder and executivevice president of the billion

(13:30):
dollar apparel brand FUBU.
Tv host and producer, publicspeaker, personal branding
consultant, creative director,author, humanitarian and the CEO
for us by us network.
I'm going to be honest realquick.
When I started watching well,not, I started watching his

(13:53):
posts on Instagram.
I follow Jay Martin Alexanderon Instagram and I saw when he
was launching for us by usnetwork and I was a little
concerned.
I was a little bit concernedbecause it was just too much
fisticuffs.
It was too much fisticuffs andpotential yeast infections.
It was just too much for me.

(14:15):
So I just want to know is theregoing to be a balance?
What new shows is he thinkingabout launching?
If we have people who aresocially conscious and they are
content creators, how can theydeliver their content to you to
vet and to place on the For Usby Us network?
So we're going to have a verymeaningful conversation in love.

(14:37):
This is what we do as a people.
Even though we have questions,even though we may disagree, we
have to find the common placewhere we do agree and expand on
that.
On this show, while I unpackcelebrity pivotal moments and
milestones, I'm going back andforth with anybody.
I have an opinion, you have anopinion and we're all smart and

(15:03):
we can just exchange ideas andthoughts.
So I'll be back.
Stay tuned to sign your nameand don't forget to subscribe.
I'll be back with Jay MartinAlexander.
Shop eligible items onInstacart and get $20 off, in
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Speaker 2 (15:42):
Hi, Jay hey how are you doing, sorry?

Speaker 1 (15:45):
about that.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
How are you doing?
Can you hear?

Speaker 1 (15:46):
me, oh no problem.
Yeah, I can hear you perfectlyfine.
I was dealing with Wi-Fi issueson this end, so everything
worked out just fine.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
OK great.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
Now, do you prefer to be called Jay or Jay Alexander?
Which do you prefer?

Speaker 2 (15:59):
You know what's weird ?
Because people will not justcall me Jay anymore.
They just call me Jay Alexander, and it just got switched out
of nowhere.
So it's the history of my name.
But you do what you feel,because people think my last
name is Alexander, but it'sreally Martin.
So they'll just say, or whatthey'll.
Now.
What they'll say is becauseit's just a letter, jay, they're

(16:20):
like that doesn't make sense.
So it must be his name must beJay Alexander.
Two words, so I love to say itor two letters.
My first name is just theletter, so whatever it is.
Really Whatever you feel.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
Yeah, wait, your first name is just a letter.
That's it, yeah, ok, what's thestory behind that?
Because I've never heard ofthat before.
Like at birth, when yourparents pick a letter out of a
bed.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
OK, we're just going to name it Jay.
No.
So I was adopted and when Ifinally my family finally fully
adopted me, I was going back andforth with my adopted parents,
adopted mother.
The father wasn't around.
She was beating with the father.
Long story short, she would putme in foster care, take me out,

(17:07):
put me in.
But the same family kept takingme, until the mother that I
have now which that's why Icalled mom period.
She was like look, you juststop playing games and you're
going to take me or not?
I'm going to take them, or youwant them to stop because you're
playing games?
You don't want them?
Just give them to me, I'll takethem.
So, long story short, as myfather used to be called my

(17:27):
father, that I have now used tobe called Jay C or John or Jay
the hey Jay.
They would always say.
So I was kind of, I wasn't ofage, but I was of age enough to
listen to a name and know how Iwant to change it, because my
middle name, my name, wasAlexander Proprier.
Then he was like well, let'sname you Jay, because people

(17:50):
used to say, hey, what's up?
Jay, when I was really, hisname was really John.
So I said I like Jay, but Idon't want Jay.
Why I just?

Speaker 1 (17:59):
want the letter J.
I like it.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
Now I can't tell you today's world, you can't, I
can't say why I didn't want Jay,because it rhymed with
something and I was like Icouldn't, I couldn't, you know I
can't say that today.
I couldn't say it.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
Yeah, back in the day .
You know we're in the era ofcancel culture.
You can't sneeze Right, youcan't right, right.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
You got to be real politically correct and, and you
know, and especially with these, you know these podcasts.
They get people to talk in andthey regret it later.
They get your likes and views,they get what they want, but in
the end, is that what you reallywanted?

Speaker 1 (18:39):
True, like we're not a salacious, you know streaming
platform over here, so podcast,so that's you know.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
We just want to unpack your people moments and
not you can put that, but leastyou know it's for me, as I have
an understanding of today andI'm responsible.
You know responsible dialogue.
If you want to use, I could usethat phrase.
You know I'm responsible tounderstand.
You know what's today andwhat's yesterday is the same.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
Yes, I just want to talk about it.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
You know, so it's all good.
You know, so it's fine.
What do you have?

Speaker 1 (19:15):
Yeah, it's all good, but I like what you said, having
responsible conversations orresponsible dialogue.
I like that.
I like to navigate between eachrooms.
You know, the responsibledialogue, the ratchet dialogue.
It just makes me thewell-rounded Sanya that.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
I am today.
You know, it's cool, it works.
It works.
I mean again, except when youstarted responsible.
You know the truth is the truth.
You know, regardless of what itis or what happens, or what
happened or what I'm saying,it's the truth, that's what
happened, that's why I said it.
But you know you can't.
There's no such thing, as youknow how you say this.

(19:54):
A lot of times people want toput their opinion in it and call
that truth, and that's not true.
Yeah, what you feel is itdoesn't really matter.
What's the truth is what's thevirus?
You know, so it is all good.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
So true, but this is an error.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
I was 10 when I said it.
What do I mean?

Speaker 1 (20:12):
Right and they're still holding you responsible
today.
But we live in an era whereopinions are translated into
fact.
No one's checking anythinganymore.
If someone said it, then theyhold validity to it.
But what I do know is true isthat we both grew up in New York
City.
You're from Hollis, I'm fromQueens.
I mean from Brooklyn.
No, I didn't just say I'm fromQueens, I'm from Brooklyn.

(20:34):
And growing up in an era suchas the 70s, the 80s and the 90s,
you couldn't help but beinspired by something.
There were so many thingspouring into the culture, from
the music, from the fashion,from the television shows like
Soul Train.
Now, when you think back on the70s, 80s or 90s, who or what in

(20:58):
the culture inspired you to tapinto fashion?

Speaker 2 (21:06):
So fashion, of course , is always around us.
However, we took something andwore it.
That didn't really mean like ifyou took, let's say, use the
case in point of Western wear,or you took outerwear that you

(21:30):
would go hiking with and wewould take it and kind of
transform it into us, Like wehad stores, like Models and
things like that and stores.
It wasn't really superexpensive as far as I was
concerned, but we would takepieces and pieces and put it
together and do it our own way.
Or take the jeans and put thethin line down in the middle

(21:52):
permanent curbs, permanentcreases, things like that.
We would just elaborate on eachgarment in our own little
specific way.
As me, growing up in Queens, Ilived on the border between
Queens and, I'm sorry, betweenHollis and Farmers.
So I was kind of inspired bythe drug dealers and fancy cars

(22:16):
and how everyone from alldifferent boroughs would come to
this place called the Rock andtalk and I guess they would
negotiate what they're doing orjust kind of stand around and
just be out there and congregatewith each other.
I think it was a little morebusiness going on than just
congregating, but it is what itis.
So you would see that and youwould be inspired like, wow, he

(22:37):
has a fancy car and he has thisand that.
Now you can go home and sayyour mother, father, are
responsible human beings and say, listen, don't even think about
doing something like that,Because I know what you want.
Every kid wants to be it or bea rapper, or be whatever, but
you got to do it your way andyou got to do it the right way.
So long story short.
I just feel that the culture asa whole, what you see, what

(23:04):
people wore my deed is thingslike that.
It just all inspired me in acollective Me changing my
clothes three or four times aday, things like that, trying to
get the hottest, the latest andlatest thing.
And again, I think it'sinnately in us to always want to
market ourselves, brandourselves and a light that we

(23:29):
are all doing well.
No one wants to show themselvesnot doing well.
For looking good, Even if it'sthe knockoff of the hottest
thing, you're still going to tryto figure out how to make it
look good and look good and bethat.
Because of that, you wasn'tgetting the girls.

Speaker 1 (23:47):
Yeah, that's true.
We weren't getting the guyseither.
We didn't look like, but withso much inspiration just
channeling your vision and yourgoals, how did Fubu come about,
and did you have any other namesbefore you landed on the name
Fubu?

Speaker 2 (24:08):
Well, so I never take credit for coming up with Fubu.
I give that to the holy grail,to Damon John prior to me.
Damon John, I'm sharp-tinked,he created names.
I came home from the military.
I was in Desert Storm.
Desert Shield got out on a 50%disabled back injury.

(24:30):
I got about $6,000.
I went to his house because wewere childhood friends.
We went to college.
I mean, we went to junior highschool and high school together
and he still lived around theway.
When I came home I wound uphooking up with him.
I went to his house.
I remember it like yesterday hehad this little green, this
little counter as soon as youwalk in the back door with the

(24:52):
kitchen, and I was like, wow, wesat there.
And he was like I sort of hadsitting there.
And he was like, oh, I madethese hats.
It was a type-type hat.
It was in for a little whileand it was out.
But one of the guys around theneighborhood was in design
school and he was a graphicartist and he wound up creating
the graphic based off of theconcept of them sitting around

(25:14):
the table saying, hey, we needsomething that's for us, by us
and since.
That's how the name got started.
And then when I came in, I sawit, I was like, ok, what are you
doing with this?
Oh, nothing, this is dead.
And I was like, no, it's notdead, let me help you.
Take it just to the next level.
And he's like, well, how canyou do that?
Well, I have some money, here'ssome money.
And two, I'm going to fashionschool and I'm working at Macy's

(25:37):
at the same time, so I reallywanted to be in the business and
it was just something like Ijust said look, I'm good at this
, like I'm good at foreshadowingwhat people want to wear, and
I'm good at dressing as wellstyling.
So let me take a stab at it.
I kind of knew that it was goingto be what it's going to be,
because I knew, I believed inmyself, I knew what I could do.

Speaker 1 (25:59):
Got it.
But that's such a layeredconversation and experience Just
talking about the process.
But another part of thatexperience is the feedback that
you received from your familyand friends as a black man
wanting to design and createclothing.
What was the response that yourfriends and family gave you as
a black man in Turing fashion?

Speaker 2 (26:21):
Well, again, most in those times, traditionally you
were supposed to be a doctor, alawyer or a plumber or something
like that.
But pick a trade, trade a lotof cars or something like that.
One cars not really my thing.
Lawyer, that's too much schooland my father wasn't going to
pay for that.
So I just felt like I was moreinto the arts in some kind of

(26:46):
way.
I just didn't know which one itwas going to be.
At one time I just decided tomyself hey, I'm really good at
knowing what people like, so letme try to be a buyer.
And after I was focusing 100%on it and it didn't cut into
fruition, which is great, I wantto do this football thing.

Speaker 1 (27:04):
Nice, nice.
But what I do know andunderstand from talking to other
black designers is thatoftentimes that once we get into
the room and we have access,oftentimes we become
disenfranchised.
Now I remember walking intoLady Dr J's specifically to buy
Fubu gear, but I always thoughtabout what was the process to

(27:27):
get a brand like Fubu into thesemajor retailers.
Talk about that process.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
I mean the process all starts with the actual buyer
or your salesman.
I mean, coming into thisbusiness, we had this kind of
crawl before we walked.
It wasn't about having sales ofup to now, $6 billion of sales.
It was hey, listen, we have agreat item, please take it and

(27:55):
put it on consignment, whichmeans if it sells, you've been
in money, I've done the sales,I've given you the back.
But it was all about themarketing and pushing the brand
and to the point where, ofcourse, llkj helped us with the
work very much in that feat andgetting it out to the stores and
letting people know that thisis the hottest thing, getting

(28:16):
the music video and with that,all marketing, because we were
very good at marketing gettingit out there.
With that it became a desire towhere our salesman would take it
and just kind of hand it up andsay listen, this is the order
we're going to give you.
This is the order we're goingto give you If you sell you 100,
sell you 100, sell you 100,sell you 100, sell you 1000,
sell you 1000, sell you 1000.

(28:37):
And that's it.
We would give people credit.
Most would have credit to beable to buy our goods and they
would pay net 16, net 19, net 30, or whatever it is, or you'd
have to come and pay cash.
We would go to some because themagic sales and all the buyers
would come there and we wouldshowcase our stuff and then we
had a sales force all over theworld, regional as well and

(29:02):
regional as far as the US andEurope and those guys would go
out there and just sell, sell,sell, sell for all the major
retail.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
Wow, OK, well, you described the process and for
someone listening they may say,oh, I could do that.
But let's talk about the numberof knows that you received.
Did you receive a lot of knowsbefore you got a big one?

Speaker 2 (29:26):
yes, Well, we were lucky.
My knows wasn't necessarilywhen it comes to selling.
My knows came when it comes toactually manufacturing, in the
beginning of just trying tofigure out the business.
Again, there wasn't theinternet, there was just going

(29:46):
to school, actually teacher orread a book and that's it.
So you had to go in there andreally and I say this to say
that I failed a lot of classesbecause I did it one way and it
worked the school would say, oh,this is where it worked, this
is why it was supposed to happen.
I mean, we go back and forth andfight, but again, I guess, mike

(30:08):
, there's right, mike, that'sright.
So I can probably teach nowbecause I want to tell everybody
.
But I guess, really, to reallyfocus in on your question, there
really isn't really a memory inthe nose because again, our
product was we made it so hotthat we had to have that product
.
We had it in shows that, oh wow, I really want that.

(30:31):
And then we held it back fromthe consumers to where everybody
was clamoring for it.
So when we finally let go andgot a Samsung, that was just a
business car point vehicle, thenwe would get everybody
Everybody was like I've probablygot it.
We're not even going up fromthe bottom.

Speaker 1 (30:54):
Wow yeah, everyone had to have football.
I mean, like I said, I wouldfaithfully go.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
It's almost like you limit your distribution.
You limit your distribution tocreate cars.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
Mm, that makes sense.
That definitely makes sense.
But then we talked about howFubu was so hot and it was
flying off the shelves and wesaw LL Cool J and then other
rappers wearing Fubu, and thenwe didn't see Fubu anymore.
What happened when we didn'tsee Fubu on the shelves?

Speaker 2 (31:27):
Well again, I mean, after a while, just like
business, like business, thingsgo up and things go down, burko,
but it goes up and goes down.
It's life and in any businessyou have, you're never going to
be going up, up, up, up and keepgoing up.
It's going to stop somewhere.
Yeah, and that's kind of whathappened.
I mean, our customers grew withus and to the point where they

(31:49):
grew and then maybe that kiddidn't turn around and say I
want to wear my mother, fatherwear.
They want to do something else.
And it became a moreevangelistic viewpoint when it
came to our fashion.
But for the Treasury too, otherbrands, as far as the high end
brands and we were high end justas well as they are and we have

(32:10):
the same amount of sales asthey are too but people just
didn't make that correlation atone point.
I think that we transcendedmore, so with us as our name.
As far as bias concern, I thinkthat turned and that kept going.
But the focal point is the onlypart kind of slowed down,
although we still would nevermiss the beat when it comes to

(32:31):
overseas.
It's just if you look at themarketplace and demographic side
graphics of the actualAfrican-American community.
They own something today, ownsomething tomorrow.
So it's going to take.
It's taking now.
As far as now, my business isactually flourishing a lot more

(32:51):
than it was years past, becauseI think there's a renaissance of
people wanting to actually live.
That for us, bias mantra, as wehad have had it years ago and
then a lot more.
At one time there was tons andtons and tons of other
African-American brands, andsince then they've kind of fell

(33:12):
to the wayside, although we'restill standing here, not
necessarily that skin to ourteeth, but reintroducing
ourselves to that youngercustomer and hoping that we can
do what they like.
Yeah, and I did thinkmaintaining that older customer
that understands the vintage andwhat we used to do and how we

(33:32):
used to do it.

Speaker 1 (33:34):
Yes, yes, I definitely agree with that.
I have a daughter.
She is 28 years old and Iremember seeing Fubu at Forever
21.
And I was like, oh, wow.
And I had the conversation withmy daughter about Fubu shaping
my era, my heyday, when her mamawas in the street and
introducing Fubu to her now.

(33:55):
So it was likecross-generational conversation,
cross-generational fashion.
So it was great to introduceFubu to my daughter.
And we don't see those otherbrands Baby Fat Well, baby Fat
is starting to make areemergence, but those other
brands Carl Canag we don't seethem this generation talking

(34:17):
about that fashion.
So Fubu has really become acultural phenomenon?

Speaker 2 (34:22):
Cultural, yes, definitely.
And again you bring up CarlCanag.
Baby Fat looks like that CarlCanag I've seen recently.
He's still out there, stilldoing some stuff.
But again, we was able to.
Our marketing was just beyondcomprehension.
It's just that good.
I mean again to us to the pointwhere we're in museums and we

(34:45):
have wax figures of ourselvesand we're in textbooks and
things like that.
No one has ever as of us hasbeen able to do that since then
and probably won't.
But again, we've been inbusiness for 30-something years.
So to beat us, you've got to bein longer than that and doing
it in a consistent way.
Not necessarily if you're juststill here and you're selling a

(35:07):
few items here and there, butyou're popping up every once in
a while when people in BlackHistory Month, or you're popping
up when somebody wants to do a,let's say, a party and with a
90s theme or something like that.
No, I'm talking aboutconsistently there, providing
goods every season and being inthe business.

(35:28):
But a lot of times, a lot ofpeople if you see a lot of these
brands that came in where theyhad a spokesperson and it was
like maybe this rapper's line orthat rapper's line.
A lot of times that was just acompany that came in and said,
hey, let me use your name andlicense your name or whatever,
and it will call up your line.
So it's really again, always goback to telling people it's the

(35:50):
fashion business and I wasactually in fashion, I actually
went to school for fashion, soI'm invested differently.
You can't just say it's notabout just going online and
going, ok, I want to start aline, ok, yeah, you can try to
do that.
But again, that's like megiving you the answer to the
test but you can't prove yourwork.

Speaker 1 (36:10):
Right, right, right, right right.
You mentioned something aboutblack designers and then people
now saying I'm just going online, I'm just going to launch a
podcast, so I'm going to launchan apparel brand.
Do you think that the blackmarket for black ownership has

(36:31):
become oversaturated?
And I ask that because Irecently went into a clothing
store and also a cosmetic storeand the first things they both
said the salespeople was let meshow you this black owned brand.
And I was like wow, thesepeople never said these things
before.
Do you think the market isbecoming oversaturated?

Speaker 2 (36:53):
Well, again, I don't want to say it's a bad word.
Again, you're entitled to howyou ask the question, but I
personally would like to say,hey, here's a brand you might
like and just leave it at that,because again, I don't want our
recognition and that's giving usour recognition.

(37:13):
You can't want the recognitionbut did not want it.
So you do want them to say that,but you don't want them to say
that.
So it's a fine line betweenlove and basketball, like it's a
fine line between I wanteverybody to know what it is,
but then now I'm stuck in thatbubble of only being black

(37:38):
because you'll never get anyother customer and because there
isn't the bias like it used tobe, you don't have enough
customers to sustain you, sothey only walk it in.
When you walk in, you're onlyasking for a person that's black
, so you're not asking foranyone else and just saying let
us stand alone on the fact thatit's a great product.
Because you walk in and say, oh, that's a black designer,

(38:01):
that's a black brand, ok, well,put it up next to white brand,
but that black person will gooff in mind a white brand.
And but the white person is notgoing by the black brand.
So again it just pigeonholes usinto that.
But then again we still wantthe recognition.
So it's a really fine.

(38:24):
It's like a hamster where it'sgoing to go around and around
and around.
It's never going to be a greatdefinition to it.
It's always going to be sometype of question mark.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
Yeah, because I know every time I walk into, let's
say, like a Walgreens or DwayneReed, when it comes to hair care
products or bath and bodyanything, there's a black
section.
And I'm just like, yeah, we dowant the recognition, but I want
it to be aligned andstreamlined with everything else
, Because this is culture, it'snot just black culture, but you

(38:55):
also mentioned something, goahead.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
I might add one other point.
A gentleman said this to meyears ago and I kind of modified
it a little bit, but it'salmost like this If you're
culturally, it's like this wedon't necessarily have a full

(39:17):
fledged culture Like we'read-libbing, we're going along as
we're going along To whereother ethnicities really have a
full fledged culture, wherethey're going back for histories
, because I was being splinteredso much.
So if you walk down a block andyou see an agent sign and you
see another agent sign, you seea building and it's an agent
sign.
You know it's an Asianneighborhood.

(39:38):
But then if you go down, yousee a Latin sign, it's a Spanish
sign, another Spanish sign.
You know it's a Latino area.
But if you keep going down, yousee a store, another store,
another store.
You see a building.
You don't know what the area isbecause we don't have an
identity.
So it's like, ok, this isgiving us an identity, but it's

(39:59):
like a false sense of identityBecause we don't have an
identity.

Speaker 1 (40:03):
Yeah, yeah, that's so true.
Other cultures come into ourneighborhood and they create our
identity, ie by the liquorstore, the check cash in place
and a laundry mat Always in, andalso Martin Luther King Jr
Boulevard.
That's always in the blackcommunity and, once again, it
isn't us shaping our experience,it's other nationalities coming

(40:25):
in and telling us what ourculture is.
And what I want to talk aboutnext is and something that you
tapped on is black owned versusblack targeted, and I think that
we are in an era where we needto start to understand the
difference and unpack theresidue of each, and I feel that

(40:50):
the streaming platforms andtelevision specifically when it
comes to black content, it isbecoming entertainment, is
becoming anger tainment, and I'mreally not liking the direction
of it, and I'm specificallytalking about the Zeus Network
and Tubi.
So, for example, tubi a wholebunch of black content, but it's

(41:13):
not black owned and I don'tthink a lot of people know that
Tubi is owned by the Fox Network.
So, transitioning into your newstreaming platform for us, by
us, is it black owned or is itblack targeted?

Speaker 2 (41:30):
OK, so I am black owned and black targeted.
I guess I'm going to take bothof those flags.
I've always been, you know.
Now here's the thing.
Now some people may sit therein question in certain
situations.
You know, a lot of times in ourworld we can't get financing.

(41:54):
I'm not talking about me, I'mjust saying in general.
A lot of times you may can'tget 100% financing.
So you'll team up, partner upwith another company or
something like that, and in turnit'll be, you know, you'll have
to do 51, 50, or sometimes youdo 49, 51, because they put up
more money, but it's still blackin spirit, because there's the

(42:16):
black people that are actuallyrunning it, but it's the white
person that helped them fund it.
Now, and that's a thought inthe question about you, Is that
black owned to you?
No, if we have, let's say, likea white CEO or founder, and the
content is just You're a blackCEO, black CEO founded, black

(42:38):
CEO founder, but a white funded.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
I think it depends on the equity of the partnership.
If the partnership is more ofthe black owned, then for me,
yes, it's black owned, but ifthat white partner is coming in
and they are owning about 75%,no, it's no longer black owned
for me.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
Right, no, and I actually only use what I
actually.
That because and I'm glad yousaid that, I wanted to get that
out there Because a lot of timesI think when people have these
conversations, they have theseconversations in the vacuum and
most people just suck up to suckup what they hear, but don't
really understand what they hear.
They don't understand what theyjust going off and going, oh
that's what such a subset andthey would aggruditate it, and

(43:22):
they don't really understandwhat they mean.
So when you own a company, ifyou own more percentage, then
you are the owner, you're theprimary owner period, that's it.
So I just wanted to make surethat that was a point made For
me.
For my streaming platform.
We have three partners, I amone and we all stood up our

(43:46):
equity.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
So that's the problem .

Speaker 2 (43:52):
But when it comes to content, I have to do what
people want.
One.
I have different demographicsof people.
It's called forced bias.
So with different demographics,people want different kind of
things.
So people want to have them.
We shall overcome.
Some people want power, somepeople want and I have to.

(44:13):
Some people want sports andentertainment.
I have to do it all becausethat's what I'm stuck in For us
by us world.
That's what I will be until Idie.
Some people may go, oh, I don'tlike that program.
Ok, well, I have other stufffor you.
But this is what I hate aboutwhat we do with each other.
I don't like it.
Did you watch it?

(44:34):
No, I didn't watch it.
I just don't like it.
No, I heard the name.
I don't like it.
Well, did you watch it?
Did you even see it?
No, it's like this how do youknow?
Did you watch it?
No, I didn't watch it.
Well, do you know I have 50other movies?
Do you know I have feature filmcoming in?

(44:54):
Do you know?
Oh, I didn't know that.
Well, you didn't tell me.
Well, I didn't know you werestill in business.
Did you look?
Right?
You don't say in film.
You don't do your job.
You just listen to whatsomebody is saying and it's
undisciplined Knowledge.
Mm-hmm, you're giving outundisciplined knowledge because
you're not really a, you're justsaying stuff, just to be saying

(45:16):
stuff, and I think you're justsaying stuff.
I think social media is killingus in retrospect because, in

(45:36):
theory, when you were supposedto be, everyone's a commentator
and everyone has a voice, butback in the, you know when
someone really does have a voiceand they're all the news and

(45:58):
they're speaking.
In fact, check it.
You know they just stuck tojust spew out anything just
because, and that you know, cutwithout any decimation.
So I can go on about it.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
I get it.
I get it.
I definitely said that I wasgoing to give the For Us by Us
network a try.
But however, like I, I didleave a comment on one of your
social media posts about one ofyour shows I believe it's the
side chicks of something, I'mnot sure and I did have a

(46:33):
visceral reaction because I wasassociating For Us by Us and I
was thinking that there would bea little bit more socially
conscious content.
So when I saw the side chicks,I was like what is this?
Like?
I said, it gave me a visceralreaction.
So can you explain for myselfand also for my audience, what

(46:56):
shows do you have streaming onthe For Us by Us network?

Speaker 2 (47:00):
Well, again, yes, I do have a show called Side
Chicks of LA and Side Chicks ofCharlotte, and then I have a
series of more of them coming.
But that is for a certaindemographic, that is for the
people that love Zeus, but it'sstill not a Zeus.
No disrespect, and I respectthat man as far as what he's

(47:21):
doing, because, again, I wouldnever bring another company down
to try to bring my company up,although he has, you know, racy
content.
Mine isn't as racy because I'mjust a little more.
It's just not me.
I try to put some type of guardrails on it.

(47:42):
Not necessarily every secondgoes.
As soon as you walk in,everybody's fighting.
No, I don't have that.
There's more dialogue.
There's always cattiness.
It's a little more real becausethat's a lot of times, women do
get in the room and they get alittle cattie and it's happening
.
And then you have that onelittle one woman that just she's
wanting to be the boss and theywant to fight and it's going to

(48:02):
happen.
But then again there's alwaysthe kumbaya moment when there's
bigger heads prevail.
So it's just life.
But I try to do that.
Life isn't.
If somebody walks in the room,everybody's fighting.
That's WWE.
And I think he rose up.
Are you still there?
Okay, nope, you're not, I'mgoing.
Hello, well, I'm not sure ifI'm still talking or I'm in the

(48:43):
audience or I'm in the dungeon,but I guess I need to take over
the show, because I'm takingover the show because I don't
see her.
I'm back.
I was about to take over theshow.

Speaker 1 (49:04):
You can any given day .
You can.
I give you full permission.
But I'm going to repeat thequestion, because you really
just spoke about the side chicksof what.
Is it LA or Charlotte?
Now I, you know I recite anytype of biggie lyric, but I'm a
Coretta Scott King too.
Is there content for me?

(49:25):
You know, when I want to kindof make sure that I'm feeding my
soul and my mind and havingthese conscious conversations
with my daughter before I turnback on biggie, can I expect
content like that?

Speaker 2 (49:37):
Again.
See and this is going to soundhow I take it when someone says
it, and no disrespect to how yousay it what you're asking me is
this is a network.
So it's a network with multiplepieces of content that's
growing and growing, growing,growing, growing, growing.
Again, there's nothing that I'mgoing to do.

(49:59):
That's not going to have sometype of arc story arc where
there's conflict and there'sresults and there's a result to
it, and then there's a, a reprepent, and there's nothing.
That's not going to have anytype of thing like that.
So, again, you wouldn't watchsomething that didn't have that
because you'd be bored and you'dbe like, okay, I don't want to

(50:20):
say anything, right?
So, again, I have to do what Ihave to do when it comes to
content for some people to beengaged.
Now, my first show that I cameout with is that.
Now that's not the only thing Ihave.
If you go on my platform onCineverse uh uh, fubu and you
see all the other content,there'll hold another other
movies out there that we havethat await, that are not in that

(50:42):
genre.
But my point to the matter is,when you see a, you just get
stuck and you can't get off it.
It's not going to happen.
I knew it was going to bepolarizing at least the name,
but you know what's doing it'sgoing.
Oh, hey, let me go at least seewhat they're talking about.
Now I don't think anybody'sgoing to hunt this internal way,

(51:03):
because if you really actuallywatch it, there's an episode in
there that really teaches womenhey, what are you doing?
You talking about you want thishigh value man and you're not
even high value.
And if you, if you really wantto get with him like, I'm not
going to tell the whole thing,but you know they talking about
how, okay, well, you, well, Iwant him to help me start a
business.
Well, spell business, right,I'm not saying the whole thing

(51:30):
about business, but I'm justright, spell it.
Okay.
Well, did you ever map out andsay, hey, this is what I have
here, this is the whole rank Idid, this is what I did.
Then maybe he'll go.
You know what they'd hear, not,you know.
So she, she breaks it down tothe point, one of the women's
crying in it because she'sreally realized that I'm that's

(51:51):
not how it.
And and and promoting it's notnecessarily promoting, you know,
uh, uh, someone being a sidechip.
It's really to be honest, if Ireally think about it, it's the
anti.
It's not even that they talking, it's the anti If you really
get into the show.
They're not really talkingabout.
They're just talking about howdo I get a man?

(52:12):
So they can't.
They not necessarily gettingmen that that for themselves,
right.
And if they get the man, he'sleft.
And how do I keep the man?
So it's a lot of it's a lot ofjewels in it that really help
help in women, but they can'tget past the name Cause you
thinking it's a side chick andthis guy still, this girl's

(52:33):
still in my man.

Speaker 1 (52:34):
No, got it, so I'll look out for the overarching
themes on this.

Speaker 2 (52:40):
It's almost like it.
It's somewhat of a clickbait.

Speaker 1 (52:44):
Yeah, yeah, I get it, I get it.

Speaker 2 (52:48):
But now a few of them are some side chicks they are.

Speaker 1 (52:54):
You know.
So what we can, can we expectto show you know about the, uh,
the older men who cheat, whodon't take care of their kids
Since we want to talk aboutwomen who can't spell business
without the Z, um, well,honestly yeah honestly yes, we
will.
Yes, we will.

Speaker 2 (53:15):
No, you wouldn't, Because men, women, women, women
, demographic.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
What's a women watch 70% more than the men TV, yes,
so a show about cheating men,men who don't take care of their
children, women would.

Speaker 2 (53:39):
Well, first of all, I wouldn't see.
Now that's.
I'm not see again.
I'm not highlighting you'regoing to the point.
I'm not highlighting women thatare side chicks.
I'm not.
So if I was, why would Ihighlight men that are?

Speaker 1 (54:02):
doing wrong Cause maybe they go into college too.
So that's the overarching theme.
Yeah, I'm challenging you, mr J, I was saying they're men.

Speaker 2 (54:12):
They're men in the show.
There are men in the show thatare that are not right.

Speaker 1 (54:19):
I get it.
The only reason why I'm askingthis line of questioning is
because, with this whole realityshows, docu-series, these
streaming platforms, it isalways putting women at the
forefront of these nuancedissues, but we don't see men,
you know, just unpacking theirnuances.
That's the balance.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
Not a market for that we really want to see on
television.
There's not.
There's not a market for itReally, yeah, no, I test.
The only market for men, forshows, if you look at, tell me
one now.
Think about that.
Tell me, in history, what men'smen's show has ever been on TV

(55:01):
that they started?
That's been on more than oneone, one season.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
No, I can't name one, but I will give a reason why I
can't give one is because a lotof these networks are run by men
.
It is a very masculine drivensociety and men don't want to
put their garbage in theirnuances.

Speaker 2 (55:25):
That's not the answer .
It just doesn't test well.
The only thing that men like,that men go 100% for, is sports.

Speaker 1 (55:37):
Whenever I go west I go watch some men's show.
I get that and I don't disagree, but to a point is that what
it's like?

Speaker 2 (55:47):
I get that.
Think about Disney.
Think about Disney.
The new CEO of Disney is awoman.
All of the new Disney Marvelcharacters are all women.
Okay, but now here's the catchMen watched Marvel more than
women.

Speaker 1 (56:04):
Yes, yes, I get it.

Speaker 2 (56:07):
If you turn it around , it's not working very well.

Speaker 1 (56:12):
But will we get to a point where we will say it may
not have worked then, but let'stry it out because it may work.
And I still firmly believe thatit isn't working, because men
are making the decisions behindwhat they will produce and
curate.

Speaker 2 (56:30):
No, I'm telling you, it's not, it, it just doesn't
sell.

Speaker 1 (56:35):
Okay, it doesn't.
So if a person is looking to beplaced on the For Us, buy Us
Network, what type of contentare you looking for to place on
your streaming platform?

Speaker 2 (56:45):
As long as it's African American content and
it's of quality.

Speaker 1 (56:50):
Period.
So if it's just pure, I havecooking shows.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
I have cooking shows.
I have a cooking show with aformer NBA basketball player.
Okay, I have everything.
It's just not up yet, like wejust started actually populating
the whole channel.
So everywhere we start ourYouTube channel and populating
stuff.
We have a talk show called theBuzz coming out.

(57:17):
We have a podcast coming with,you know talk podcast for
entertainment to politics, butwe have it all.
It's just slowly coming out.
But the first thing I know wasside chicks to get the draw.
Got it.
If I came out with, if I cameout with Peralta, scott King

(57:37):
goes to church.

Speaker 1 (57:38):
ain't nobody bought it?

Speaker 2 (57:40):
What's called Black voices?
Oh, it's a show called Blackvoices and people there and
we're all talking about, likeright now, did anybody Russian
to come?
Oh my God, I can't go.
Wait, wait to watch this.
No, yeah, you're right, youneed a balance, just like you
said.
And again I'm like I said, one.
It all goes back to.

(58:01):
I always use just some, justsome, just analogy and I say
people always look at the shinyobject, but they don't know how
that shit got shiny, yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:10):
The point is, when you're saying to me well, why
they don't have men showsbecause you know it's men
oriented, if I'm a man, then why, if that's the case, women
would do women shows.
Because they want women stuff,because they want to talk about
women stuff.
The men, if they run at it, menwould do want to do men shows.
You think men don't want to domen shows?

(58:30):
I'm dying to be on the show.
Really I'm dying to be on theshow.
This like look at my partner,when Shark Tank they had to,
they took that too many men.
They took off one and I'd havetwo women all the time.
Because it's for balance?
Yeah, because nobody, becausepeople don't want to watch just

(58:53):
the men.
How many women talk?

Speaker 1 (58:58):
shows are there.
There's a lot of women talkshows.
A lot, a lot, yeah, but there'scertain.

Speaker 2 (59:05):
I get that, men.
If I'm right, there's one talkshow by itself.
That's it.
But do you ever see a wholelist, a whole four women, four
men sitting and talking?

Speaker 1 (59:16):
If the content was right and men were leading that
content, I think that womenwould watch.

Speaker 2 (59:22):
They try it.
It failed and it's failed andfailed and failed.
Just doesn't test well.

Speaker 1 (59:30):
I just I'm gonna keep hope alive, but it's like low
hanging fruit for me.
It's really telling theaudience that we don't have a
high EI in order to watch,digest, process and share that
type of information, that higherlevel thinking of information,
and I just want us to get to aplace where it isn't white noise

(59:51):
.
But you mentioned somethingabout people just focusing on
the shiny coin and not reallyunderstanding how long it took
to be polished.
Before you even launched thefull as bias network.
It was 13 years in the making.
Is that true?
Yeah, something like that.
Yeah, what was happening inthose 13 years of work before

(01:00:13):
you were actually able to launchfull as bias network?

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
Well, I've launched it.
Under Fugue, about 13 years ago, westwood Steaming was just
becoming streaming and that wasVLD channels, video demand
channels on Verizon and Comcast.
To this day I still have theComcast one.

(01:00:39):
No, the Verizon one, sorry.
No, the Comcast one.
Right, okay, and that's how Iactually got started in the
business and then I startedunderstanding that streaming was
becoming something.
As you know, again, it's hard toget content, it's hard to get
anything.
So I was getting random pieceshere and there, but just to get
it going and flowing.
It was hard to get advertisersand that was one of the primary

(01:01:03):
things.
To make any money, you'rebuying or you're leasing content
, or you beg bar and stealingcontent and you're not making
any money because you can't getany advertising, because you
can't get it up enough, get theviewership enough, because of
CPM is close to 1,000 and youonly got 1,000 people watching.
Now, eventually, you startgetting better, better content,

(01:01:26):
you start getting your views up.
Okay, but then you still wouldonly, they still would limit you
, they would limit yourviewership, but you really
couldn't get that many peoplewatching.
So you can never really get anyadvertising.
But if you got advertising, youwould get wouldn't get primary
ads.
You would get ads that you'dhave to place and you get a
thousand dollars here and $1,300there a month and that's it

(01:01:50):
Like.
What is that?
That's not even doing anythingpublic, it's not even paying my
bills, right, it's hard, it'shard to keep going.
And then I went up teaming upwith the company overseas and we
were gonna merge and thatdidn't work out due to
negotiations and financiallyjust didn't work out in certain
favors, whatever, and one sidewanted, you know, astronomical

(01:02:15):
feed for for license and otherones like this and work, and
that didn't work.
So then, fast forward to that,I hit team with one of my guys
that was in the space of realityTV.
We partnered up and then wechanged the name from Food to
Forest Byers and then we startedactually creating, you know,
reality shows, but we wouldn'tput them on.

(01:02:35):
We weren't putting them on anystreaming platform, we weren't
actually debuted on IG.
So every week, rather, youwould see a new show or a new
episode, a new clip and youwould think that, oh man, maybe
I'm missing it, but you knowit's coming out.
But we actually reviewed andplayed it all through IG.

(01:02:58):
So that's how we actually gotstarted.
We just go wow, what is this,what is this, what is this?
And again, it always goes backto the food booth.
Way, you know, we did what hewas had.
We just do things differently,like we went out there and not
the traditional way that anybodydoes stuff, and as we got, went
forward, we started makingstrategic alliances with
different companies.

(01:03:18):
The booth went out here, andnow we're really out in a big
way.
Prior to that, you know, I wasthere.
I was there.
You know, I got some noise.
I made a little noise with afew of these shows that were
supposed to come out.
Actually, it never came out.
We would just you take this outand get the buzz, buzz, buzz,

(01:03:39):
but we didn't actually launch,really, really launch, like we
wanted to launch what we'redoing now coming so, now,
because, again, we didn't havethe right boxes in place to
really because what I'd like todo something, I'd like to do it
in a big way.
I don't like to do, you know,things small.
I just think it's the foodbooth, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:03:56):
Got it, got it.
But I'm glad that you talkedabout that process with the
Forrest bias network and alsothe process behind FUBU, because
in this digital space of socialmedia, you have a lot of the
younger generation thinking thatthings happen overnight.
They don't work as hard as wedid back in the day, they don't
want to work as hard to get thebenefits that we are now seeing

(01:04:18):
today.
Something that you said in apast interview.
It really resonated with me andit made me think differently
about how I project or manifest.
I learned that you don't creategoals, you just have a vision.
What is your vision for the ForUs by Us network?

Speaker 2 (01:04:39):
Again, you know I'm back to the concept of vision.
I can tell you what's happeningbecause I'm always in space and
I'm out of body.
I'm doing something, but Idon't, it's just flowing.
When things just happen, it'sbecause I'm doing the right

(01:05:01):
thing.
I don't know if that'sspiritual.
I guess, bob, you believe partyis spiritual.
So vision is just movingforward into what you're doing.
You're doing, if you say I'mgoing to be in this business and
it starts to grow and it'sgrowing and it's growing and

(01:05:21):
it's expanding and it's scalingthe things that you wouldn't
even think about doing becauseit just wasn't even in your mind
, that's when you know you're inthe right vision.
For instance, I think this weekI should be going to Canada,
new Jersey, to work on thefinished work and on this deal
to build a film studio in Canada.
So you know that's kind ofquiet as cap but it's not

(01:05:46):
totally done yet, but it lookslike everything is going to come
along.
But again, when I first cameinto this business, I wasn't
thinking about a film studio, Ijust was thinking about getting.
My whole thing about doing thiswas the fact that I needed
someone, I needed a platform toget my clothes out and put it on
artists and put it on TV and docommercials and put it in and

(01:06:10):
things like that.
That's it.
I just needed a way toadvertise because everything was
saturated and I just needed analternative way and I never
really thought I don't want tosay I never really thought, but
I knew that this was going tohappen.
But I didn't know that theseother though, right, I had.
I just I signed last year a dealwith BMG for record label,

(01:06:31):
joint venture, record label BMGto do shows, to do theme music
shows for television.
I also consigned artists.
I also have a publishing deal,huge publishing deal with them.
Like so, no, I did not thinkthat was going to happen,
because I'm only thinking I'mjust going to make you know, I'm

(01:06:53):
just going to get content frompeople and then, very eventually
, I can do, you know, my ownseries or something like that.
But no, that's when you havevision, where you have a goal,
my goal, what it just thought,just to do a and I had to stop.
That's why I say vision.

Speaker 1 (01:07:12):
You've given me a lot of food for thought, especially
about, you know, men being atthe helm of the decision-making
and what they're creating andcurating and placing on
television.
And then also redefining,setting goals and just having a
vision, because the vision ismuch more expansive than the
goal.
So you've given me a lot offood for thought.

(01:07:33):
J Alexander, thank you so muchfor this conversation.
A man like you just doingamazing things, you're telling
my book, your book.
What about your book?

Speaker 2 (01:07:46):
My new book, the Strength of Forrest Byers.
Talk about that real quick.
So the Strength of ForrestByers is basically explaining
what actually Forrest Byersmeans and giving you examples of
time from our history In ourhistory that explains what
Forrest Byers and how we've beenable to achieve what we have

(01:08:08):
achieved, and given anexplanation of how we've been
using Forrest Byers for all thislong.
Well, we just don't know it.

Speaker 1 (01:08:15):
Yes, we have been using that for so long, to the
point where it is just gainingso much momentum that it's
becoming hashtags.
You know Forrest Byers, blackowned, black led, and I'm loving
this space.
I'm glad that you wrote a bookabout it.
Where can people purchase thebook?

Speaker 2 (01:08:34):
Amazon.
You go to Amazon or your localbookstore.

Speaker 1 (01:08:38):
You have a lot of moving pieces to your life, J
Alexander.

Speaker 2 (01:08:42):
Are you?

Speaker 1 (01:08:42):
married, are you?

Speaker 2 (01:08:43):
married?
No, I'm not married.
No kids.

Speaker 1 (01:08:46):
You looking for a wife?

Speaker 2 (01:08:48):
Look, you know what's funny.
What I always say after that isno kids are the wedlock?
That's my, that's who I am.
I have no kids out of wedlock.
I'm not married.
I'm having kids.

Speaker 1 (01:08:58):
See, we need a show like that, okay.

Speaker 2 (01:09:03):
That's called.
What's that called?
That was the dating show'scalled.
Oh, that's what that's called.
That's the only man-based showyou can have.

Speaker 1 (01:09:12):
That's sells.
That sells exactly.
See, I just gave you an idea.
Look Well, j Alexander, isthere anything else that we
haven't covered that you wouldlike to share with my audience
before we close out thisconversation?

Speaker 2 (01:09:27):
Oh, I guess.
Well, you can find me JAlexanderMartincom, the letter.
J AlexanderMartincom has all mysocial media, but just to tell
you, I guess the primary socialmedia would be IG, which is J
period Alexander Martin, or, youknow, facebook Jax and the
Martin, linkedin Jax and theMartin, and I always mention
LinkedIn because I think thatthat's not used enough in our

(01:09:49):
society and our community and Ithink that that should take over
the IGs of the world, becausethat's what we really need to be
focused on more.
So, instead of entertainment,or just balance it off a little
bit.

Speaker 1 (01:10:02):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
Because that's the boardroom.
Ig is your magazine andFacebook is your glorified email
.

Speaker 1 (01:10:11):
You better talk about it.
You know I'm an educator forover 20 years, working with high
school students, and I do a lotof professional branding for
them.
I'm always taking professionalheadshots and also helping them
create a LinkedIn account, likethat's one of the milestones
that they have to obtain beforethey graduate.
So I'm so glad that you didn'tjust mention Facebook, thread,

(01:10:35):
tiktok, instagram, but you alsomentioned LinkedIn.
So thank you for dropping thatgem, jay Alexander.
I really appreciate you Allright.
One more thing, too, I forgotto share with you.
There's a show that you haveI'm not sure if it's out already
.
It's about a family.
I believe they're in TexasWilliams family.

Speaker 2 (01:10:54):
Yes, that's my daughter's friends.

Speaker 1 (01:10:56):
That's my daughter's friends.

Speaker 2 (01:10:57):
Are you kidding me?
It's me small world.
Oh, can I play that one though?
Is that one fun for you?

Speaker 1 (01:11:05):
We'll talk online.
I saw the fight in the livingroom.
No, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:11:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:11:10):
I'm with the college, with my daughter.
And then he called on the phone.
Yes, small world.

Speaker 2 (01:11:15):
Yeah, but you know, it's family, it's families,
that's family, that's the realfamily, that's how it works it
is.

Speaker 1 (01:11:26):
I like the premise of that show because it reminds me
of my family.
If my family gets together,somebody's going to get hit with
a tire, somebody's going to getcursed out, somebody's going to
the emergency room.
It's all love.
It's all love, it's all love.
Well, jay Alexander, thank you.
Thank you so much.
This has been an honor.
I'm so full from thisconversation and even meeting

(01:11:49):
you, because you have been soinspirational to so many people,
starting from me in the 90s,going to ladies, dr Jays, and
getting my fooboo gear.
Continue blessings to you.

Speaker 2 (01:12:00):
Thank you, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:12:01):
No problem, take care Bye-bye.
So there you have it, ladiesand gentlemen, jay Alexander,
martin, waiting to get to thepart of the conversation.
Well, I was really questioningthe For Us bias network and
there are so many things.
There are things that I'm likeOK, I agree.

(01:12:23):
Yet there are things where I'msaying let me think about that a
little bit more.
One thing that I definitelycan't agree with is yeah, we see
the shiny coin, the shiny penny, the shiny quarter, whatever it
is, and we just focus on thatwithout really unpacking what it

(01:12:44):
took in order to become a shinycoin.
People will dangle that shinycoin in front of you and it
distracts you.
So on Jay Alexander's Instagrampage, he was dangling the shiny
coin and just like Get Out, Igot caught in the Matrix, I got
caught in the trap.

(01:13:05):
Is this the only content thatI'm going to see?
And this is why I invited himon the show, because I really
want to have the conversationabout how can the full us by us
network just be about Shanae,naboo, quisha and Raheem?
But I'm glad that he hasadditional content that really
unpacks the different layers ofthe black experience, the

(01:13:27):
different layers of our culture.
We just got to go in and seeall that is available for us.
So we did mention you know tobe.
We did mention the Zeus network.
I don't want to discount anyblack person's work of creating,
of infiltrating a system thatoften denied us access, but I

(01:13:51):
just want us to be more sociallyand civically minded, just to
make sure that it isn't lowhanging fruit.
So I'm glad.
And another thing that I'mdefinitely going to be thinking
about and having conversationswith friends about is and I'll
impose this question to youWould you like to see a show

(01:14:14):
about black men unpacking theirnuances?
And I don't mean to bestereotypical, but the shows
about black women, they're verystereotypical.
So can we see shows about blackmen, about you are in a
relationship for 10 years andyou have 2011 kids and one day

(01:14:37):
you just woke up and said Iain't coming home and have them
kids and then you go off and youstart a relationship with
someone else.
Or you're in a relationshipwith her, her, her and him to,
or you just don't.
You don't want to take care ofthem damn kids.

(01:14:57):
I want men to start unpackingtheir nuances for all of the
world to see, but on the flipside of it, I want to see the
black man go into college.
I want to see the black manmarrying his, his girlfriend,
and then having a kid.
I want to see the balance ofthat, because I really do feel

(01:15:19):
as if women we can we get a badrap.
And then, when we walk intospaces that don't look like us,
that weren't created for us,they're watching these shows and
they think that that's us.
Sometimes I go into these highend stores and I don't care how
impeccably dressed I am, theywill still follow me to.

(01:15:41):
I'll say it again I don't carehow impeccably dressed I am, I
turn around and secure meBecause they think that we are
all the same.
So I just need to see thebalance of shows.
So, lamelle Plummer, the CEO andfounder of Zeus, I just want to

(01:16:03):
see the balance of it all.
I don't have a problem withJocelyn's cabaret, have no
problem with that.
Have no problem with that isEast, no problem with it.
But I also want to see anotherpart of black culture.
I want to see women in the roomtalking about business ideas

(01:16:24):
and creating partnerships andbanding together To collaborate
in order to strengthen theirbrand strategy.
I want to see that, in additionto the Tom Fulery, because we
all deserve a little white noiseevery now and then, but I don't
want it to be the driving forcethat's shaping our culture.

(01:16:48):
So another great conversation,this time with Jay Alexander
Martin.
Let me just run off this blackman's credentials again.
Get my paper, I'm going to getthis right.
He is the founder and executivevice president of the billion,
billion Did you hear me when Isay billion Billions dollar

(01:17:09):
apparel brand Fubo.
He is a TV host and producer,public speaker, personal
branding consultant, creativedirector, author, humanitarian
and the CEO of for us by usnetwork.
I'm talking on a copy book thatexplains for us by as we've
been doing this for so, so, so,so, so, so long.

(01:17:30):
But you know what happens.
We create things and thenpeople just take it from us and
remove our names as if we nevercreated it or had a part in
creating it.
So we've been doing this for so, so don't even let me talk
about the things that came outof slavery, no, about how they
gave us a scraps and we turnthose scraps into cuisine.

(01:17:56):
Sometimes I go.
Sometimes I go to Sylvia's andHarlem.
I love their vegan collardgreens and I'll be standing
online with the fluorescentbeige people.
So my class and candy yams, letme go before I get into trouble

(01:18:18):
.
This is another amazingaddition of Sonya on air with my
special guest, jay AlexanderMartin.
Make sure you subscribe.
And if you're watching this onYouTube, not only subscribe, and
make sure you hit thenotification bell.
That way, every time I uploadan all new Sonya on air
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(01:18:40):
And that's it for today.
Thank you for watching.