What We Talkin Bout - Season 1, Episode 7

What We Talkin Bout - Season 1, Episode 7. Hosted by @CakelifeGougz & @Wa_La_Magic_Mo. What We Talkin Bout is aired live from Paradise Studios NY via the Strong Island Entertainment Network. www.strongisland.com

#Live #TalkShow #Music #Talk #Hiphop #HipHopCulture #Arts #Entertainment #StrongIslandTV #StrongIsland #LongIsland #Nassau #Suffolk #Brooklyn #Queens #NewYork #StrongPersonality #StrongIslandFamily

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
What we're talking about. You alreadyknow what I'm talking about talking about.
What we're talking about, money,What we're talking about, what they're talking
about this money, What I'm talkingabout, what we're talking about. Money,
will be talking about what they're talkingabout this money. What I'm talking
about. What we're talking about moneyeven and what's good folks. Space Pays

(00:24):
were back with another episode of whatwe're talking about money, What we're talking
about? Yeah, we talking abouteverything under the sun today. I'm chilling,
man, you know, relaxing.I just came back on vacation for
the weekend. You know what I'msaying. I was in pat right here.
He was having a good time.That was I you know what I'm
saying. We had no hot waterin the airbnb. I'm saying we was

(00:47):
heating up pots of pots of wateron vacation and taking back to the Project
days. I wouldn't say the Projectthat. You know what I'm saying.
You know we had a time ortwo were without the all the hot water
heater. Yeah, yeah, Iremember that. I know what that is
like. Definitely. Yeah. Igrew up in a public house and so

(01:07):
I definitely get it. Oh firstand foremost, I gotta give a shout
out to my um my junior,my young man. Uh, happy birthday
to your son. Love you verymuch, Okay, happy birthday. Yeah,
Kareem bay In, my young footballstar. You know I got to
give him a shout out. Definitely. Um yeah, So yeah, man,

(01:29):
I was just you know, justthinking about some things this week,
man, And you know, I'mhappy we found us a good a good
good sponsor. You know, wefound us a good sponsor this week.
Think there's a lot of things rockingand rolling this week, man, a
lot of things coming together this week, man, Yeah, a lot of
things coming together. You've been excitedthis week, man, talk about that.

(01:53):
Oh, you know, I'm alwaysexcited. What do you mean,
I'm always excited. I'm always inspiredand feeling, you know, like there's
something on the horizon. Yeah,you know. But we're gonna talk about
our sponsor. First. I wantto give a shout out to a number
one draft pick. Shout out thenumber one draft pick, definitely. He's
a New York designer. Um asyou can see fire Merch. Yeah,

(02:16):
he came out. He came outwith a couple, a couple of different
varieties and flavors tonight. So yeah, shut the green screen down. Yeah
yeah, we had to. Wehad to bring the green screen down because
this brother's outfit was a little fly. You know what I'm saying. It
was kind of green, had somegreen there. We had to pull.
I gotta tap in the comments,man, we know, I gotta let

(02:38):
us know what y'all think. Yeah, yeah, it tld to us tonight.
People told to us tonight, um, and we're gonna respond because you
know, you guys are in thecomments a lot, so we're gonna definitely
try to respond to you guys tonight. Absolutely, say whatever you want.
We're gonna say it back what you'regonna say, man, whatever they want.

(02:59):
What was as positive? I don'tfeedback positive, okay, because you
know you have to test your test. You out to that because you know,
I don't know if he was.I don't want you're button up on
the day, so you know Ithink he was in Like yeah, like
I'm saying, listen, man,that's that's that's respect, that's respect.
I usually don't do this dressing up. Next week, I'll be dressed like

(03:22):
a hoodlum. Oh my god,there you go, look like just right
off the rails right, like youknow, somebody, Um, somebody says
something to me on Instagram and saying, how come on the show you got
on you got on shades, butyou never have shades on in the show.
What do you think about that?Man? Who that mean? Yeah?

(03:46):
What do you think about that?Man? I'm saying, Man,
what sho what shop are they talkingabout? What I'm saying this show I
always got shades on. No,and in our avatars, I got shades
on. Yeah, but I haveshades on too, shades and show.
Oh I'm saying, listen, man, you said you was gonna have shades.
You fell over with no shades.What I'm saying, Hey, listen,

(04:08):
man, I didn't ran you youknow, you know what this might
to keep good shades? Bro?Like you know this. I didn't ran
through like thousands of dollars in shades, bro, like Gucci shaves. Like,
what do this got to do withthe show. I'm just well,
we we're talking about fashion, man, So I'm just saying, like,
you know, I'm just thinking,you know, like fashionable. You know,

(04:29):
I need to get a pair ofnice shades. Oh, I'm saying
take care of that. I'm justtell your girls. That's something you gotta
tell your girl. But something bedisgusting. It's all you don't know.
He got on the button up onme. He still loaded up. He
ready. You see this guy withyou know? So what's up? Man?
I know you're working on some newmusic. Nah, I really I
haven't been. I'ven you know whatI've been. I've been. I've been

(04:53):
so immersed in my family, man, I ain't really had no time to
work on nothing that I need towork on. You know what I'm saying.
Like every time every time I goto do something that I'm supposed to
be doing, my kids want sometime, you know, so I give
them naytime. You know what Imean. You gotta be an adult.
We're adults. So you know mydaughter she's always tucking on my shirt too,
So I get it. You know, see me life what you expect?

(05:19):
You know, like you feed them, they grow. You hear what
I'm saying. Then it's like,you know these vacations or whatever, It's
like it feels like everybody's been onvacation for the last ten days. Yeah,
it's nothing like a vacation. ThoughI need one. We're going on
one soon. But Um, we'regonna go. We're gonna take a little

(05:39):
break and we're gonna bring our guestsout and introduce you to the owner and
CEO of Number one draft pick.Be right back O kick Life, A

(06:43):
scop sco Scoper check Life. Catoaims, we back at it again.

(07:05):
Y'all know that this we can't lose. I gotta let know that he ain't

(07:27):
that you know, I want youfor all. I gotta money. Why
do you tell me? You know, I'm trying to keep the thing I
say. He's he's charged up,trying to see you better, get your

(07:48):
fun, better ball. He's settingdown everybody. But again he doesn't care
because you know the ends about therise and he ain't cha the money ship

(08:09):
piece piece. We back, weback. We were back in the building,
y'all. Yeah, so we gotus a mega star in the designer
world. You know, one ofthose low key guys that you know plays
the background and you know you don'treally know about him. Major see all
of the stuff that he's doing,you know what I'm saying. So I'm

(08:33):
gonna let you introduce yourself. Iain't gonna see that yet, but introduce
yourself. Brother, my name isManuel P. R. Lewis aka Supreme
being a game for over twenty fiveyears. You know the game is a
crazy game, right. It tookme to success, and it also took

(08:54):
me to divorce, got remarried andhad sons young, and once I had
my son, some came over meand I wanted to leave something that can
transform into something major for them becauseworking in an urban business, it was
kind of heartbreaking for me seeing allthe big companies going out of business,

(09:18):
Fat Farm, a Niche rockerwear FooBoo, and these are the companies died
out. These are the companies thatexpired me. And it was hurtful to
know that I've given a lot tothat industry and setting up a brand called
First Choice, another brand called Johnnyhad some Johnny Girl Tough City, and

(09:43):
I remember, I remember Tough City. It was like a killer to know
that girl, the industry can justkill you at a moment's notice, pull
the rug, pull the rug done. And me being who I am and
most people that know me, Idon't settle for nobody just taking something from

(10:03):
it. So once I saw thedirection of the market and knowing that I
had sons now and I would notwant them to go through what I had
to go through to try to figureit out in life. So I knew
that I had to reinvent myself andbuilds wealth opposed to just get money and
making millions and basically hustle in thein the white man's world. So let

(10:28):
me ask you a question. Yougo ahead, man, you got it
all right. So what part ofNew York City are you? Fro's it?
What's your neighborhood Queen's Rose Down.When I was young, my neighborhood
was dominantly white, and I wasblack kid that didn't really know myself at

(10:50):
the time, So I was runningaround like I didn't understand race. You
know. They started doing stuff like, you know, calling me names and
stuff like that. But I wason this cocke, so I called them
name. They called me the Nword, I'd call him the white word,
and we'd laugh and we'd still befriends and we'd play. And that's

(11:11):
all I ever know. When that'swhat I ever saw. What year was
this, you know, like thatwas what was the timeline? You know,
I would say nine eight, seventynine seventy four, about about seventy
six seventy seven in that timeline,maybe maybe around seventy five, I would
say, I'm old g R.I know right, I laid it down,

(11:35):
you know, I laid the pavementa lot of things that's going on
now. I'm probably the founder ofsome of it. Tell us about it,
man, tell me a little,you know what I'm saying. You
know, you you kind of answeringsome of my questions. I'm gonna keep
it. I'm gonna keep it humble. I grew up not I didn't need
for nothing. My family gave meeverything. We weren't rich, they didn't

(11:56):
have a lot of money, butthey gave us the best neighbor hood,
that gave us food, that gaveus some place to stay. But the
one thing they didn't give me ismoney for fashion, you know, money
for clothes. You know, Iwalk close. But you know, when
you have a family from the islands, they don't give you like name brands.
You know what I'm saying. So, what's your background. I'm I'm

(12:20):
from Haiti. I was born inHaiti, part of Prince right, Okay,
so I came yeah, Haitian andthe building y'all know what it is.
Yeah, yeah, man, wefight for our definitely all right,
So, um, what was theuh, you know, the moment in

(12:43):
your life where you said, youknow, I'm going to I'm gonna focus
on being a designer. I'm gonnaget into hours a long time. I
mean, how old was you whenyou like hours old? I mean he
was older, you know, comingout Most people who know me, you

(13:03):
would never never think that I'd beenclothing or fashion, or that I closed
my eyes or dream or inspired itbecause I grew up a trendsetter. I
grew up making it happen, right, I grew up. Who was you
making happen? Like, give mea little insight on that. I mean,
I was getting money. You know, back when I came up,
there was no sports. You hadto be in the top twenty colleges.

(13:26):
So that was out of it.And they weren't you know mcdonnald was around.
Yeah, Burger King was around.But you know, once you as
you start growing up, first thingyou see is dealers driving nice cards,
and you get you don't see nothingelse. You know, you don't see
ball players at that time, youdon't see anything of those natures. So

(13:52):
the first thing you want to dois hustle to get money, right,
and unfortunately for a lot of people. I set my eyes on that and
the restaurant's history. Yeah you knowwhat I mean, but every good thing's
come to it. Yeah, Iget you know. That end was the
next life in my life, youknow what I mean. It was like,

(14:15):
okay, I see what you cando. Now the world know that
you that guy. You know whatI mean, you left the mark.
Now you see what can happen.You see where you can go. You're
seeing people that took it hard.Is that what you want? So that
was the first change in my life. So so after you know, after
that, after after that, howdid you you know what I'm saying,

(14:39):
go legitimate in the business and becomethe CEO and strive tools where you at
now? I mean, after that, I'm gonna trying to keep it short
because it was a lot. Butafter that, you know, when you
when the man put hands on you, he wants to watch you for a
little while. So the first thingI wanted to do is, you know,

(15:01):
find a job. And like mostpeople, you know, the only
thing I was available coming from thegame is construction because the money was kind
of decent. You that need to, you know, have much knowledge.
You just need to be strong.No well no, no, that's how
how I got my start, That'show I stayed the same, because you

(15:22):
know, I do have a developingmind, you know what I mean.
I wasn't the average. What I'msaying, I understanding. I look at
something, everybody see a garbage can, I might see, oh shit,
I can sell ten of these,and everybody need garbage right right, right,
right right right. So I hadto I had to try to protect

(15:43):
myself because I was still strong.I said, you, a lot of
people things were available, but Ialso knew what can happen, so I
was fighting that. So construction forme was a way of wearing my body
out, going home and knocking out, breaking up in the morning, and
having to do the same thing overagain. So basically, what he's saying

(16:06):
people is he was staying out ofthe streets, staying out of uh,
staying out of the the How canI say the distracted lifestyle that you know
some of us fall into in thepoverty stricting neighborhood. So it's a lot
of a lot of news. Yeah, it's it's not as it's not an
easy task, especially when um,you know, yeah, it's a limited

(16:30):
you know a number of jobs oryou know, some much scrutiny out there
when you're trying to find a job. So it's you know, it's a
lot, it's a lot more tooit than that. I'm not gonna,
you know, elaborate on that toomuch and take too much of your time.
But um, yeah, but butI'm gonna I'm gonna just turn turn
it over because as you know,that ain't what I want to do though.

(16:51):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah, it's allowing my mind to slow
up a little bit of poster movingfast. And with that being said,
in that saying, I did becauseyou know, I have some money staff,
you know, I mean I comefrom a background of thank you.
So I had paper, I hada Bends, had a couple of other
cars, so I was able tostay grounded. You still got a Bens

(17:11):
too, I've seen you still gotBens out there. It was nice.
Yeah, I stay everyone who knowsme, No, I stayed with Bens.
Yeah yeah, okay, my wholelife. That's my sickness. And
I know Bench should be paying methat I'm a baber guys, I am.
But you know, then I decidedto open up a barbershop because I
wanted to be coming an entrepreneur.One of the worries that always worried me

(17:34):
is having the background of having alot of money, seeing a lot of
money, I always like challenge myself, how would I working on the five
and be content? So that overthat was problem, you know a lot
of problems to me. So startinga little business in Brooklyn barbershop and at

(17:56):
least you we was that it wasin between Howard and Ralph. You know
the store is funny because the reasonI went to Brooklyn was for two reasons,
one being that my stomping ground wasQueens. I didn't want to get

(18:18):
caught, you know, slipper andjust open up a business, think it's
sol gravy and just chilling back andsomething to keep up you know, whole
problems. So I figured Brooklyn.I felt that at that time, cats
didn't really go to Brooklyn, soI would have a fresh start. I
wouldn't have to worry about nothing.And I wasn't afraid of Brooklyn because I

(18:40):
knew people, I knew what timeit was, so I can handle myself.
And then you know, with Queens, Queen's kind of got like it's
a little elegant posted to Brooklyn,so I didn't have to spend as much
money opening up my store. Queensget the money, you know, queens.
You know I gotta spend ten thousandon a chair. You know.

(19:03):
I'm not saying nothing again to bK, but you guys welcome people simple
queen. They want you to be. I spent too much money, but
it worked out pretty good because Idid well. The barber shop was good.
But I still wasn't content out ofdoing construction. I was doing that,
and then you know, I wastrying to think, you know,
how can I get back to that? But yet you know what I mean,

(19:26):
not go to that, you know, And my brain was thinking.
And then I surpassed a by thisdeeper shop, and I thought about it
because you know, when I wasin the system, not the system,
but when I was in the game, I should say I was fortunate to
have a beeper back then. SoI was aware of beeper, the need
of them, and I always hadthis feeling like when the public gets to

(19:49):
it, because back in my time, you either had to be that man
or a doctor or a lawyer,you know, that special lines person right
so connected with the Beeper company,open up the beeper's shop within my barber's
shop, started dealing with the customers. Had the barber's come to me and

(20:10):
had a couple of ball people thatwas in there start getting beepers from me.
I was learning from So would yousay you're the first guy to start
doing selling beepers out of the barbershow because I used to see that a
lot when I was I mean,yeah, I'm a trend setter. You
know, most everyone who know meknow that I had. I was killing
it. Make a long starta shotbecause I know, we get you know,

(20:30):
I want to take too much ofy'all talk times as well. Set
up the beeper's shop, open upa little small hole in the wall.
It was a rat money and thenbeepers happened to explode right there. Well
you will you was with me,and that was ninety I would say it

(20:52):
was wasn't ninety between ninety three,round ninety three to ninety eight, you
know what I mean? Maybe yeah, in around ninety two in that area.
Okay, that was right around aroundyeah, about ninety one, ninety
two. What was it like smartbeep at that time or something like that,
like smart beep. If I'm notmistaken was what got me out of

(21:15):
the business, because by the timeI made so much money, I was
killing it. I'm talking about moremoney than drugs, real talk. Because
at that time you're talking about Ihad the whole b K, I had
the whole hood, I had peepers, and other people's stores had already learned
how to So what was what wouldyou like? What was it like?
All right? And that in thebeeper business? What was like the on

(21:40):
a good year? What was thenet income on a good year for me
at that time about seven hundred thousand, seven hundred thousand at that time a
year. But here's what's even better, seven hundred thousand dollars. But my
profit my expense would be about onehundred and fifty. You don't say what

(22:00):
I'm saying. So the proferent ratiois ugly, but that's what they had
to get. Too much money topay two dollars from the little chain sell
that for ten bucks, fifteen bucks, case dollar seller case for fifteen So
the accessory money was a total differentbeast. You know, the beeper people
pay me monthly. I get aresidual in Brooklyn for every reason, and

(22:25):
I'm sure all over the place.I have about six thousand customers, ten
thousand customers every month. If let'ssay I got twenty five hundred people do
that month, right, almost fifteenhundred is late, so you get a
late fee, reactivation fee plus daybeeping fee. And to them it was
nothing, you know what saying.I mean, it was just ugly money.

(22:49):
Yeah, that's that's and you know, so that was the beginning of
my re emerged. And at thattime, I was trying to find something
bigger to do, something to doand you know when and to the recording
studio, how did that? Howdid how was that venture? That venture?

(23:10):
That was weird because I don't wantto mention too many names, but
I commence a few, like,for example, Marvelous. Knowing that Tony
Yeyo was my artist, I putthem on the map fifty and all of
them used to come to my studio. You know, I didn't have him
on a lot, but I gavethem the access. You know, I

(23:32):
brought pro tool to the hood backthen because pro tool was about two hundred
an hour. Yeah, you know, Jewish guys and understand don't have the
money breaking news. I brought protool to the hood. We were doing
like the Mastermind. We were doingan unsigned height, you know, all

(23:52):
of that stuff that was going onin Queen's I was producing it and a
lot of people didn't know it.When you and the Magic Word was playing
the background, and I wasn't inthe background because I had all frontmans in
the front. I was playing theback because I could see who's coming in.
I was still rehabilitating myself out here, and I know there's a lot
of people that you know, hasbrothers and sons and uncles, so I

(24:17):
listened. I need to make surethat there was no bad blood, you
know what I mean. And itcosts me because I wasn't engaging with certain
people, So I kind of losta lot of opportunities. Cats didn't really
hold the ball correctly. But thename is coming up, and just to
jump to the clothing. One thingthat did happen when I had the groups,

(24:41):
and you know, did you Absolute? I know and Vienam you know,
you name them. They came frommy studio when they were coming up.
But when we had the groups,everybody wanted to buy the shirts.
As we were naming groups, andI was making shirts for them. As
you grew to identify the groups.The kids was asking for it, and

(25:02):
that kind of rang a bell forme. And that's when I started to
do First Choice, which was theoriginal of my beeper shop. And then
I'm gonna make it short. Iended up owning about four beeper shops in
Long Island and Brooklyn and Queens Beepershops had about ten beeper shops. You
know I had. I had aspotted chambership, first Choice, right,

(25:22):
first choice, beepers everything, andthen I had the First Choice entertainment.
The whole movement I had first startedall the way to even recently, you
know what I mean, And that'swas always my branded. Everyone knows knows
what okay, but that is.But that was like train out of control.
I was pumping money in the system. I was making money, but

(25:45):
I didn't know what I was doing. Yeah, I know, I understand
as a as a young business ownermyself, sometimes we get distracted by um,
the when the money starts coming inand we stopped, we stopped again
about the legists, sticks of thingsand you know, the management of you
know, of the materials and inventoryand then the money. So you just

(26:07):
said, you know, sometimes yougot the money coming in and you're like,
all right, I'm gonna just spendthis. Oh it's to cover that.
Cool, take that, to dothat, But you don't know if
it's getting done or if it's gettingdone all the time. And I was
penalty. This is all types ofstuff that people don't pay. You know,
the life is good when you aboutyour life, but you know when
you have a secret life, youalso don't learn it. You don't know

(26:30):
a lot. When you have agood life, no one tells you nothing.
So it's like I had the goodand the bad all in one.
So I had to learn everything thehard way and the good thing for life
and the good thing for me isthat I was determined to learn without going
backwards, which means if I tookan l I accepted it because I wasn't

(26:52):
gonna allow no one to bring meback to who I was and those that
know no and I just kept movingon from it. If I felt it
was too much, if I feltwas bringing me back to where my life
would end up in the wrong place, I let it go. So that's
when I let the music go,and then I stayed focused on the clothing.

(27:14):
Now because cats didn't value life.You know, you spent about fifty
thousand on them. Next thing youknow, they're running with the next dude.
And I'm sitting there looking at thesecats like I just I just invested
all this money into you. Whereare you going? Hey? I just
brought the studio. And you know, I had a guy come back to
me, one of my little bands, and he had ran off and he

(27:37):
met some people that knew me,you know, my opposition from the past,
and he disappeared and I never understoodwhy. And one day, you
know, years later, because hiscousin ran with me for almost twenty years,
and he came back to me andhe shook my hand. He said,
Yo, I didn't know you wasthat guy all this time. You

(28:00):
could have did a lot to usand we didn't know it, you know
what I mean. But you know, everyone has their own idea in life.
I always I always had the notionthat if you can, you know,
I hate to see when we wasteour life in this shiet. Yeah,
you know, the jail. Blackpeople are one of the most talented
people in the wild, in thewhole world, but we waste that energy.

(28:23):
And then sometimes not even that youwaste it, I think, you
know, keeping it one thousand.The system itself knows that, and they
keep us down and they do thingsto keep us active or activate in it
and then lock us up and thenthey don't have to compete against us,

(28:44):
you know what I mean? Andyou know it's it's a well made system.
But a lot of us is gettingout of that system and we're understanding
more. And because what I've seenbehind bars and what I've seen out here,
there's no match, no, youknow, it's no match. And
it's sad to see these great mindsgoing to waste and someone never come out.

(29:10):
But those type of things that Isaw is what kept me pushing forward
and never looking back because I'm notgoing to be one that wastes my mind
in that situation, right right rightright, So let me um ask you
this, right uh, what arewhat a what are like some of the

(29:34):
goals that you want to set forum the youth you know around you that
at or help them to acquire someof these goals around you, Like,
you know, what are some ofthe goals that you like to put in
front of these guys. We're thefirst set of goals that I've had.
Actually, now I have a coupleof guys that's making a couple of millions.

(30:00):
That's worked for me side by side. Everyone told them that you'll want
to go to your own thing.He's gonna leave you while you helping him.
And you know, we went throughthe whole thing. They stuck by
me, and you know, wedid a lot of big things and maybe
even people talk even more and eventuallyI set them up to do their own
thing, supported them toward them allthe knowledge. The longer they stayed with

(30:23):
me, the more knowledge I gavethem, because that's usually the things you
know, even though people don't understandit, because you don't never relinquish everything
right and you can't because it's aprocess, you know what I mean.
You have to pay your dues andthen eventually you get it. And so
I have people right now that's makingmillions due to me. You know.
I have some that has just recreatedcurriculums in the hospital and get ready to

(30:49):
launch it in every hospital, youknow what I mean. And I have
models that are supermodels. I've hadpeople that are doing movies, you know.
So a lot of people came upthrough me. So so so do
you like um like sit them down? And because I because I talked to
you, and you had a lotof information. So I want to know,

(31:11):
do you kind of, you know, sit them down and and show
them the structure or you know alittle bit of both of it, you
know, like like I'm a I'mnot a talker, meaning like I don't
talk to strangers. I don't talkto a lot of people. But if
you down with me, you gonnabe like y'all, you know, I

(31:33):
would distract, right, So yes, I talked to them a lot,
but I showed them right, sothey you know, one I used to
try to in the process that Ispoke about earlier. One of the mistakes
I made was I was trying toput frontman's around me, you know,
just show cat's love. And youknow, everybody accepted that all he making

(31:55):
me the man he behind me,But they weren't getting the job done right.
And they talked like they wanted it, but they couldn't get the job
done. And by the time Istarted losing so much money and putting so
much money out there, and thenlosing the love for my small businesses,
growing love for what I've invested alot in, I got to a point

(32:16):
where I was just like effort I'mgonna go out there and put my face
out there and whoever wanted bring it. So so let me ask, all
right, so, what are someof the other big corporations that you've worked
with? Share your name them andclothing all of them. Burlington's City,

(32:37):
Trying DDes, Jimmy jad, DoctorJay's uh Eblings, you know for the
action, all of them. Atone time, I was doing about six
hundred thousand units per months in Tshirts and T shirts and T shirt when
y'all saw all of verbic T shirtsto stop snitching U the cereal boxes.

(33:02):
I had Fox News calling me theinterview. I had people petitioning. Man,
listen, I killed the game,you know what I mean. But
it was one of them things whereit's a you know, the story is
too long Because when I was grinding, I watched Fat No, I watched
Sean John developed, I watched Rockawaredeveloped, right, which pushed me further.

(33:28):
Football was already coming up. That'swhat inspired me. That on food
will inspired me that there were streetcatslike me. So that inspired me.
Like streetcats doing it, I knowI can do it and all those that
know no me being the real shouldbe easy that you know, that's that's
what I thought. At least,it wasn't easy, but you know,

(33:51):
but it was kind of like thesuppression of rappers getting all the props,
kind of push street niggas down.And at that time, Fooba was even
going down. Yeah, so Iwas kind of on something like Damn,
I was made. So I createdan anti rapper movement. And I'll explain

(34:17):
it simpler because my thing was,in order to produce a rapper, we
have to market him, promote him, produce him, and push him budgets
and how to call my friends thaty'all gonna ride that nigga sat But mean,
while I'm that nigga, we're thatnigga that made that. So I

(34:38):
get it because I'm learning. Okay, he's just shine, He's that dude.
So but y'all don't want to dono move with me. So I
was getting angry. So two thingsthat I you know, I did that
after the first thing I did wasgoing the game, and I said,
I got something for y'all niggas becausewhen when I learned the game, like

(35:00):
going behind the game, like whereeverything happened, like like black people don't
know that there is and every yearwhere you go to trade shows, you
go where all the boys come inwhere you know they're they're going. They
purchased from the Jewish, the Jewelsand all of that. So when I
learned that, I said, okay, I'm a teacher on Nigga is something
I was able to speak to acompany by then. I didn't lost money.

(35:21):
I didn't learn who the Chinese was, who the Indians was, who
the Jews was. They all gottheir different ideologies and the ones that gave
a black guy like myself and opportunity. I targeted one stories to long for
me to get into it. SoI found one, so we chopped it
up. I gave him my gameplan and he went for it. Because

(35:42):
one thing about certain Asian guys,they make a big splash one time.
They don't like the mess with ourpeople, but to get their name going,
they'll make a move. So Ifound one that was willing to make
a move, and I had aplan. And my plan was simple,
I'm gonna bring the movement in theback room. So what I did was

(36:07):
I immediately decided because and I startedto bring it with me. The year
fifty launched, I had a doublespread. In that same double XEL magazine
and every month and back then youknow you you you on one double x
cl You're selected. Then Vibe andall of this stuff and being an ex

(36:30):
hustler and having a street team.I had a team. I had the
movement, so I had the vans. So anything that we did to push
the rapper like Devin jam had,I did it behind myself and my one
little man and we went in theindustry. So I turned myself into a
celebrity by promoting myself in the samemanner we did to the rappers. But

(36:57):
I went in the back room Iwas taking and the girls and I ain't
mentioned this thing. I didn't havea strip club for a couple of years
and in No Strength, Saint Markingprospect Baby, grand Baby, Grand Saint
Marking Prospects set, I was ableto see them on people. Yes,

(37:20):
So for me, it wasn't thatI bought strippers up there, but I
knew if I would bring a certainamount of models with me, the same
thing that create videos. But Ibought it in the back room. And
make a long story show that Itook that company in three years from no
money, because I mean we putour money together, our resources together from
about eight hundred grand to sixteen milliondollars. And I heard that less than

(37:45):
four years and I was the CEOof that brand. The Chinese guy was
the distributor in the manufacturer. ButI hired, I dictated, I chose
the designs and my team was That'swhat put me in the game. And

(38:05):
then from that I did other littlebrains and other stuff. All good things
come to it end. My partnerat that time, you know, he
decided to split, which we hadplanning on splitting a proper way. But
you know, one of the thingsI learned, when you're successful, you
know, you everyone fight to besuccessful, but no one knows what to

(38:27):
do when you're successful. No onehas never been successful until you. So
I kind of saw a lot ofstuff and I saw how you know,
the industry just the same just cameand anybody that was weak they got to
And a couple of things got tomy partner and he didn't flip on me

(38:50):
yet, but he started making movesthat would have discredited me or do certain
things. And based on my historythat so, how did you catch on?
How did you catch this? Easyto catch on? I mean,
if you woke, if you open. It's not like a woman thing,
you know, if you if I'mused to making decisions and all of a
suddenly somebody come in the circle,especially my own kind of people, and

(39:14):
you're going in the room with themwithout me, you know it, don't
take it. Don't take a rocketscience. Yeah, like yo yo yo,
hanging out while he go over therewith the you know what I'm saying.
But you know I was the leanback dude. But my little people,
my little people used to be nervous. Not just try. Don't work
about it. Man, I knowhow to deal with these people. But
can I actually cannot interject real quickright, And I got a quick quick

(39:36):
question right, because to me,it sounds like like even though you put
out, you know, different linesof clothing, it sounds like you may
be like a brand a branding specialistdefinitely. I mean you consider yourself like
a miner or a branding specially.I always tell people I consider myself a

(39:58):
business Okay, you know what Imean, because that's what I've always been.
That's what I was. But inthe process of being a businessman,
you have a little bit of allof that. What do I like the
most is the marketing and designing becauseI'm very creative, not so much design
wise, you know, but likeI could take a spin, I could
spend things. You know, You'renot gonna keep me on my back,

(40:20):
you know what I mean. Youcan take all my resources, but I'm
gonna spend it and come right back. And that's just a God gift given
gift. So so you basically haveall faces you go from the designing room
to the marketing, to them toyou know, even to the accounting.
Yeah, I had a hand ormanage everything because at that time. You

(40:44):
know, that's because you know,when winning, you have to be involved
winning because every aspect of winning peoplecan hurt you. And winning absolutely,
you know what I mean, becauseI've learned a lot from not being able
to win early on, making alot of mistake, Like I was blessed
with the Beeper shop, the slipclub and the barbershops. I made a

(41:08):
lot of money. Yeah, youhad a lot of different a lot of
money to blow, you know whatI mean. And I was trying to
start something positive. And when you'redoing something positive, no amount of money
feel like you're blowing. And itwas a good thing because I made it
all back, like this and oldyou know how much you blew? I
always when I my last calculation beforeI got on was around a million dollars

(41:32):
and I was receipts. That wasreceipts and investors to had this one lady
that invested in the process time likea quarter million. And I learned something
from that because she had money toblow and she was giving me money because
she liked the heights, like themovement that we were doing. And it

(41:52):
hit me one day, like witha minute, as I was getting small,
all the knowledge that I'm learning thatI need you always they had why
you never taught me this? Ohyeah, now you know how the gatekeepers
are? Right? And then wewas going to deals and people was ready
to do deal with me, andI'd bring her on the table and deal
with go dead. And I didn'thave a problem because she's been supportment,

(42:15):
so I'm gonna be behind. Yeah. But you know what I noticed from
situations like that that I think thatwould happen because it's like when people come
around and they speak a certain language, So she probably spoke the language of
some of the people in there,or they understood, you know, they
have like in the music business,a different language from the construction business.
It's a different not necessary language,but terminologies. Very basically, your lingo

(42:39):
is gonna be different. So youknow, what I've noticed is that one
someone else comes in the room andthey're with you and they speak that verbiage,
you gotta be careful about them becauseyou know they may be over there
like yeah, yeah, he's well, yeah he's a pretty good guy,
but you know, not your everydaysuperstar. That'll be like a you know,
that'll be like a signal to themlike, oh he's good, but

(43:00):
don't take care, you know,don't don't pat you know, money and
this guy, that's what that is. It was just crazy, you know
what I mean, because she shejust wanted to have control, and because
she never had control of me,in control of my business she had,
she was determined to not let nodeal go through without her and keep putting

(43:23):
a bread up in my blind Andfor a while it did. It did
because you become you become lawyer tosomebody who's doing more than your own,
people who got money, you knowwhat I mean. And she had a
good heart and then she probably metgood but in her trying to protect her
own interests, she left me justhanging in there to a point where my

(43:45):
money is depleted. You feel likelooking back on that, like all money
ain't good money. All money ain'tgood money. So so the process of
success, I was going through itby just not making it early on.
So when my opportunity came, actuallymy opportunity didn't come, I created it.
And that's story is too long forme to even get into. I

(44:07):
think I told it to you.You know what I'm saying. So it
was like I set that up fromlearning, you know, after a while,
and even that process was something becausesomething came over me one day.
And you know, I'm born around. I mean, I wasn't born righteous,
but I was righteous. I justexplained that to your brother, and

(44:30):
I never really public dimension it tonobody. People know me as supreme because
I had knowledge yourself. But atsome point you still keep your knowledge,
but you expand into more like laidback. You know, my grandmother was
a praying woman, and you know, every now and then you're like,
you know, when you're trying towin, you do a little bit of
everything. You stay focused, youdo a little prayer, you do a

(44:53):
little bit of everything. So Ihad got to a point where I couldn't
understand why I can't break the game, and I turned to the man.
And when I said to the Iturned to the man, and this is
a weird story, I said tohim, because now that my money is

(45:13):
depleted and I don't feel like goingback to the whole beepers and barbershop.
You know that, I said,You know, Lord, help the world
now, because you know how I'mgonna get it. You know what I
mean. And at that point,I know I know my end game,
but I also know what's gonna happenbefore my end. So so what made
you stay focused on? Well,you know what. We're gonna take a

(45:38):
break real quick and then we're gonnacome right back. We're gonna play some
commercials in some ads of this brother'sline. Then we're gonna come right back.
We're gonna take a quick break rightback. Piece. We have an

(45:59):
herd, the clever line. Teamworkmakes the dreamwork, and our M one
DP team is determined to make everyathlete's dream come true with a high performance
footwear and apparel as affordable price.Another thing about Number one draft pick is
is for all sports Baseball, basketball, football, soccer, hockey, all

(46:24):
sports. And it's also inspirational becauseevery young kid wants to become number one
draft all. I'm saying, atleast support your own community because we will
be focusing in our communities and oneDP dot com. I had to had

(47:37):
to come back with some fresh hats. We're back. We're back, so
prem um yeah, because I hadto cut you off for a quick so
week get so we would miss ourcommercial break. Um oh yeah, so
my questions over here has died onme and oh my, uh my,
no pat died. I got onefor you, favorite place to eat and

(47:58):
then wash? Yeah right, Iain't everywhere. I do have a couple
of little spots, you know,because I'm a I'm a download kind of
guy. There's a spot on Idon't remember no name, no street,
I just know how to get there. But uh, Queens Boulevard. There's
an Italian place, you know.I know it's on the left side once

(48:19):
you heading toward to the city.I can't remember the street, but it's
right at the corner. Everybody,I know they've got good food over there.
There's another Chinese what they mixed withit's ah. I've eaten so many
places, man, especially in VegasMan hit a hit with the next question,

(48:40):
hitting with the next question, hithim with the next question. Was
your favorite DJ? Oh my god, Yeah in New York City DJ,
because you know we gotta up NewYork City. I mean, you know
what I know. I knew everypersonally I knew. Did you absolute used
to sleep on my basement? Youtry root for people that I know you

(49:04):
ain't even gonna answer my question thoughI asked you, who's you just gave
me true DJ? You ain't tellme. You ain't tell I would have
to go with Envy only because youknow I know him and shout out the
DJ Envy, DJ Envy you towin a man. He don't know that,
but you know that being him wasin contact early on and he picked
up my call. But I leftthe game the music and along, yeah,

(49:25):
so there was no need for usto really chop it up. You
know they'd be busy. But hedid play my stuff on the radio.
Did you say, answerbod Vy man, come get you, come get you
A couple of hats man. Youknow what I'm saying. Working I just
did a just to the interview upthere in Power one or five Sunday,
I think it was Saturday. Yeah, you want to show about what you

(49:51):
got on and I kind of aracing stand up showing on h the Boston
color. You got a shirt onthe match and broidery. But this search
don't really go with it. Ididn't have time to look for it.
Okay, put that one on local. Never go wrong with Yeah a pre

(50:20):
waking out, waking out subscribers,get up, get them one of these
flying sweatsuits from www dot n onedp dot com. That again n one
dp dot com. It's a simplerthe website to scroll search or you could

(50:40):
contact anyone on my Instagram at atnumber one draft pick which is n O
dot d R A F T PI C K Right, yea y'all make
sure y'all tap in that tapp inand go get you out something. Man,
A lot of special things going onthere. Yeah, this guy got

(51:00):
a lot of different the same withthe religious stuff. What really made a
spend for me? And they alwayssay this shit happened, And for me
it was hard because I from fromseventeen to maybe I don't know thirty something,
I never was broke, never gotlow, and I got to a

(51:23):
point where with the music, thefashion and everything and learning and bumping my
head. I got low, lowto a point where you know, I
was juggling ever my mortgage, butI had a lot of other options inventory,
you know, I had stuff andthis this before you made that sixteen
million. Yeah, that's before that. And I told myself at that point

(51:46):
where you know, I'm gonna havenew choice to go be up and make
it happen. So what's stop?He was. I was in my room
when the first of all, Itook a quarter off because I realized that
I was working constantly. I mayneed you to explain to the people what

(52:07):
the quarter is for. You know, for the big business people, they
understand what you're talking. First,second quarter, third quarter, which I
mean the first quarter is January,February, March, you know, I
mean in the second quarters the nextthree months, right, third quarters the
next three months, and the lastquarters the fourth quarter, which is I

(52:29):
believe which would be one. Itold her November and December. And what
are these quarters for? How dohow do you? Well? It's for
seasonal you know. It allows youto plan for the seasons to come,
so you change the product and youprepare in advance, of course, and
sometimes some people that's where they andtheir books, you know, and stuff

(52:51):
that you heard, books, yourtaxes. You gotta pay attention to your
books and taxes, you know.For I had to ask the man above.
I said, you know, itwas like my grandparents, everyone to
talk about. I praised God foreverything. So my thing was I was
ready to break now because I wasn'tgonna be broke so and the only option

(53:14):
was to go back to the game. How to do you need to make
me be aware of what it isthat I'm undaware? Because I was still
confident of myself. So now Icalculated there was only one thing that could
be stopping me, because everything elseI'm aware of it. The only thing
is I didn't believe, I said, But you're gonna need to give me

(53:35):
a sign that you exists, andI'm gonna tell you what I want to
find out, I said, becauseif you don't come through, you know
what Tommy did, forget what Ican tell you and everybody he and I
know what Tommy did because he's livedwith me every day to see what I
do, and you know who Iam. So I'm talking to you now

(53:55):
and I'm in the room by myself, that day, I was doing some
barbelle and I was just sitting thereto myself because if niggas would have seen
that, they'd be looking at melike you you're talking about, you know,
giving up to the man. Ineed to see what I can't see
because clearly I'm not seeing something whereI keep fumbling the ball. Right,

(54:21):
and make a long story short,I gave him a scenario that I was
gonna go through. First, hemade me I saw everyone for who they
were right, which is some ofthe things that I told you because I
was referred to my acts. Butthat happened because I took those three months
off. I was able to replay, like a detective, replay my pass,

(54:42):
and I literally saw who was helping, who wasn't helping, who was
fumbling, you know, just thewhole idea, Who's who can I who?
Who are the people that's really heresupport all the people that was fucking
up my deals? I said,this go around I everybody. I'm gonna
do everything, and then I'm gonnatake care of everybody else. I'm not

(55:04):
gonna bring you in my deal.Let you come to try to show faith
because no one wants the best forme. So I'm gonna do this,
and I'm gonna do this, andif this and this and that happened,
I'm gonna know you exist. AndI made it very difficult. I made
it to where it's unlikely for whatI asked to happen. And when I
went through the scenario, because onething about the business is a recycle,

(55:30):
you know what I mean. Sowhen my next opportunity came, I went
through the abcdfe woo woop, swearto God, everything happened exactly how I
asked it to happen, and thatdon't happen. And it bugged me out
because I knew I tapped in,and I was like, oh, you
know what I mean. And therest was history. He does exist,

(55:52):
but he exists. I mean,believe or don't believe I tapped in because
he didn't. People here at thetable you want to see what I'm saying.
And the rest was history and Inever had to look back. And
that's pretty much what brought me here, was the downfall of everything that inspired

(56:13):
me and me having my two sonsand then knowing that I have an opportunity
before I'm older older to do somethingthat my son of them can't do you
know what I mean, because there'sit's once in a lifetime. Some people
are born to do certain things.You notice, like every rapper can't sell
millions of dollars of clothes even thoughthey're going platinum. Yeah, you know

(56:37):
what I mean, A lot ofpeople can't do what I do. I
always knew that. The world knowthat. Well, Um, your journey
has been uh monumental. Yeah.For all the entrepreneurs out there that want
to pursue a master brander and design, um, you definitely need to do

(57:01):
your research. You can do yourresearch with number one draft pick first,
um, and you know, learna little bit about this brother right here
and maybe propel yourself to become abrand ambassador designer in the fashion world.
You know. Yeah, that's justsome of the artists that we uh see

(57:22):
where in the brand. And youknow, Scott's been around. He's not
just talking it and he's walked it. You know what I'm saying. He's
been around so major, major,major things here. But we got like
five seconds, so you want togive everybody a piece and thank you for

(57:42):
your time, and y'all have agood Yeah, make sure you hit that
that like and subscribe button too.Yeah, what we're talking about. You
already know what we're talking about froma shout out. Hold on, let
me get this promo code. Huh, y'all make it. Y'all got to

(58:07):
create a problem. Yeah no,this guy, I thought he I thought
he had I thought he had one. Now I was. I was already
put together. You know, wejust host the show, right, you
know we need other people to dothat stuff right. All right, now,
we got you promo coders. We'llbe talking about at number one draft
pick. All right, guys,you guys, have a good night.
We appreciate your time. Once againnext week Monday Night, Channel twenty. Peace