31: Ugandan Musician to Black Entrepreneurship in the USA // The Story of Muyinza Kasirye

Those are the three things that are not balanced in the country and it's causing utter chaos. Just the despair I felt in that moment, everything just felt dark. The world you grew up in and the world you're in are two different places and you have to figure out how you want to fit in your world. Now that number one, two, you can't do it by yourself. It's impossible.

Welcome to From Rock Bottom to Rockin It. I'm your host, Eric Gilbert Williams, and this is the podcast where we explore personal stories of people who hit absolute rock bottom, then got back up, wiped off the dust, kicked failure to the curb, and now they're rocking it like you'd never believe if you didn't hear it. Live right here, we cover subjects in business, sports and life in general. If you like this podcast, please share it. These interviews are intended to inspire, to motivate, to give hope and vision. So please share this episode with someone who needs it. Use your Instagram account, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. Hand signals, trained pigeon sent smoke signals up in the air. Use morse code, whatever you like. Just share the love and share this episode. Also, email me anytime. Podcasteric. Send me questions you would like to have asked of future guests and I will incorporate them. Or just send me some suggestions on how to run a better podcast. Or just say hello, I'd love to hear from you. That's podcastericilbertwilliams.com I know you're going to love today's interview, so let's get started with us here today on From Rock Bottom to Rockin It. Born in Uganda, moved to Toronto when he was very young and then spent a fair bit of time in Boston, I think now in la, you can correct me that in a second is Muyinza Kasari. And Muyinza is a entrepreneur and musician and we're going to talk about a lot of things in Rock bottom to rock in it context, about being an artist. And obviously I can relate a little bit from the dancing world. And we're going to talk about business and we're going to talk about black and white. You know, let's just put something right on the table here and dive right in. So Munza, thanks for being here. I appreciate your time. How you doing, man?

I am good. I am fantastic. It is a beautiful sunny day in la, so I am good.

Good. So you are in LA then? For now. How long you been there?

Yes, I've been here now for about nine months. I had been here for two years, moved back to Boston and now I Just came back again.

Oh, that's great. You there just in time for pandemic and wildfires. Good time.

Yeah. I literally got here the week that they shut everything down.

Yeah. I'm making fun of you because I'm making fun of myself. I moved to Cupertino probably seven months ago, so. Just north of you. Right. And it's like I came here to do business, to network with people. Right. And obviously that's off the table with social distancing, because I'm a responsible guy and that's a direct shout out to anyone that's not doing their masks and social distancing, by the way. Smarten up. And the wildfires has been crazy, right?

Yeah. Seriously. It's been a very tumultuous year in general. I think everything. Everything is pretty much almost the opposite of what everyone expected this year.

Yeah.

Well.

And like, how many people are going to have a rock bottom moment this year? This whole show is called Rock Bottom to Rockin It. How many rock bottoms you think are out there? Like, are we tens of millions? To me, it seems impossible to count.

Yeah, the numbers are looking rough. They're. They're going to be rough. Yeah. It's, you know, and it's times like this that you need conversations like this.

Yeah, exactly.

Break it down, you know what I mean? And have a little inspiration when it gets as difficult as it's getting for a lot of people right now.

Yeah, man. And so break it down for me. I went on YouTube. I checked out your music video. I think it's great. Shit. I liked it. You know, I watched it twice. Probably watch it again a bit later and doing great stuff. But I want to hear, in your own words, take us through the journey. Take us through the journey of rock bottom to rockin It. And by the way, I'm born in Kitchener, Ontario. So I want to know. I know you went to Toronto for a while. Yeah. So I want to know your perspective on Canadian versus American mentalities here.

That's interesting. That is very unique. Yeah. So. Well, I was born in Kenya, grew up in Uganda. And when we. So I moved to Canada when I was five. We were there until I was 13. Unfortunately, when I was 12, my mother passed away. We lost. Lost her to cancer. Thank you. And the year after that, we headed out to Boston. My father got relocated. He's a pastor. We got relocated to Boston to what was an insane neighborhood place called Dorchester. At the time. It was. It used to be crazy bad. It was still pretty bad when we got there. It's getting better now. But, you know, there was a drive by across the street the first night we moved into the. Into the house. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And it was that pretty much the whole time we were there. Our car got shot through, the church van got shot through. It was pretty crazy. Yeah, so.

Because that's next level, right? Like, a lot of people don't relate to that.

No, I don't. I mean, and this is kind of the thing. The thing that's actually pretty nuts about it was that was my introduction to America. And it was the opposite of visually what I thought America was.

Land of the opportunity. Right. Land of the free, land of profitability and progress. Not a fucking drive by in the church van.

Exactly. I saw, like, I saw none of that where I was. And the. And the thing also with that was that particularly in Dorchester, it's all black people. It's all us. And so it's. It was very jarring to go from Africa where everyone again is black, look like me and was, you know, was doing like I had opportunity and was working and, you know, lawyers and everything like that. And then. Yeah. And then to move to America and again see myself. But then this, you know, version that has no opportunity, has no. And it's living in a literal war sound like, let alone a literal war zone. So it was. It was pretty. It was pretty. Pretty crazy. And it made me understand a lot about. It made me understand a lot about the world. And it opened my eyes to how extreme people's experiences are. Because that experience for that time, especially considering I just lost my mother, moved away from all my friends, and then I'm put in this place that is insanely dangerous. So what I decided was to put all of my energy into music, because music was something I could do inside. I had the skill set and I enjoy it. So I stayed inside. I started making. I started making beats, writing songs, DJing everything from there. Went into. I went to Northeastern, got a music industry degree, and then have worked over the past now eight, nine years, building up the skills, the capital, and I guess team to now put together what I'm doing, which is the part media, my media production company and then my artistry as myself.

And this word perspective is coming up in my mind here a lot. When you're talking, like the perspective that you had of the world in Uganda versus the head of the world in Toronto, but maybe specifically more in the United States. And there's two types of perspective, right? There's the perspective that we see around us. You know, you're an equal in Uganda. And then all of a sudden, you know, shit's getting crazy in the States. But then there's also perspective internally, right? What are you going to do about it? How do you see the world and what are you going to put into the world and create for yourself? Which when I read a little bit about your story and you often tell me, but I think you kind of withdrew a bit and just worked like a beast and saved up, right? And built. You created your own reality despite the reality that was going on around you. So this concept of perspective, right, because we have these influences that are always pushing on us and then we also have the influence that we push out on the rest. And it's difficult to accept that sometimes a person like I have enough influence on the world to create a different reality for myself. You know, I don't have to fall into a victim mentality or stay where I am. I don't have to live what the world is throwing on me. Right? You have the power to change. That is. Anyways, perspective comes up a lot here. What do you think of that?

Yeah, no, that's. I mean, that's very true. It's. So this is actually kind of the thing is that for me, what I have been able to do is statistically speaking, very difficult. What I've done and am doing is, statistically speaking, exceptionally difficult. And speaking from the perception of myself, I can tell you that it is, in fact, very difficult. But that being the case where me coming from, everything that I come from has given me a completely different perspective with everyone that I do generally business with due to the fact that my, my upbringing is, generally speaking, very different from the people that I'm meeting with and working with. So, for instance, a, a meeting to me, whereas a counterpart of mine that did not grow up, you know, with bullets flying and all that kind of stuff, a boardroom is not a scary thing to me because my, my perception of scary is very high. You know what I mean? So I walk into that room and I can control that room and have more confidence in that room because it's, it's. I'm not dealing with the fear.

Right, you're not going to die in that boardroom.

Exactly. So to me, that's like, oh, this is a walk in the park. So I can just do what I need.

So it's an asset. It's a mental toughness thing.

It. Yeah, it's, it's what you. It's everything. Nothing is. Everything is nothing. Everything is what you make it like if, if anything is terrible, regardless of how terrible it is, you can either change it or you can die trying to change it, or you can just say, okay, that's what it is. Yeah. So, you know, for me it was. Yeah, that is, that was a negative. But I turned it into what I needed to achieve what I wanted.

Yeah, you redirect that energy.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. So.

So I'm a weird guy. I'm an anomaly in that when people look at me or talk to me in the boardroom, whatever, they don't know I dropped out of high school. They don't know I got arrested for trafficking a couple times and breach. And they don't know that this shit was going down. And they don't know I ran away and didn't, you know, figure anything out. And here I am, this high school dropout with a weird, strange past, you know, closing big ass deals and doing some cool shit in business, right? It's this weird. I want to talk about racism in a second because I'm very naive. I'm totally naive, dude. And I'm just starting to learn what's going on. Only after I got to the United States, I didn't see that in Canada. Maybe. Let's just talk about that right away. Let's just go right into that.

Yeah, there's. Well, okay, so the Canada America difference. So there is a. There is a difference in that. The. And again, it's a perception thing. So the way, the way the system works in the United States is built specifically for me to not win. Like, specifically that. It's at every turn it's made. It was constructed for the victory of one person, rich, white male. That was the, that was the creation of America. That's what they wanted.

It was. Yeah. That's the foundation. And that's in the past. It can't be changed. That's always there. And I've never really understood that. Growing up, my mom's best friend adopted a child when she was a baby. And so I became best friends with her.

Right?

We grew up together, same age, and you guys have the same color skin. You're both black and I'm white. I can't even get a suntan right. And so I grew up with this girl and she was my absolute best friend for years. And one day when we were like 10 or something, she came in and she's giving out these Stop racism buttons. And she asked me to wear it and I was like, sure, of course I'll wear it. You're my friend. I'll Put it on and stop racism or whatever. It didn't mean anything to me. Right. I had never seen racism or felt it or even really heard about it. It just wasn't there. And two months out here, you know, this police shooting, black guys everywhere, riots and crazy shit going down, it does not happen in Canada. And I'm just getting my eyes open right now.

Yeah, that's what it is. It's. And there's that. That's the. That's the big difference. And part of that is marketing. Part of that is the. The way that. Come here, buddy. The little puppies eating.

What kind of dog you got?

Shi. Poo.

Okay.

A little. Come on, dude. What are you doing? All right, sorry. And that is a big difference between Canada and America is that the way that the system was set up is different. And so the outcome has been a little different. Well, actually very different. But Canada is also. Canada does deal with similar issues due to the fact that Canadians consume a lot of American media. 1 and 2. There's also not a lot of. There's just. It's just ignorance. Like, to be honest, it's just not knowing. It's not even a bad thing. It's just. You don't know what you don't know.

Right? Yeah.

Saying true like you. Yeah, like you said, you're like. It doesn't. It doesn't have any context to you, so it just means nothing. It's just words. You know what I mean? So that's the difference there. But here, it's a struggle, to say the least.

If compare is the wrong word, how do we look at your journey and your successes and translate that into everyone else? Right. So you're from Uganda. Didn't have much growing up. You know, tough neighborhood. You know, didn't know what was going on. And you broke through that restriction. You know, for a lot of people, it's a restriction. Does that mean that anyone can. Right. Or are you special? Or is there a secret somewhere that, you know, we need to start sharing and talking about more? Or. Why do you break through? And I mean you as you like, why did you break through? And you could probably list off dozens of people that you grew up with who didn't. Right? What's the difference?

Yeah. Yeah, there's a few differences. I. I was born into an amount of blessing in that my parents are. My parents are educated. At the time, my parents were of college age. The person leading our country made college free, made university free to educate the people. So my parents got to enjoy that. So they they are both. My mother was a lawyer, my dad has a PhD in theology. So that base gave me a huge leg up due to the fact that there's information that I had as far as financial information, which is a massive, massive piece of success. Having financial literacy, having just generally an understanding of how to run a business, pastors and lawyers, it's. You have to go out, get your client. It's the same thing. Just like any other business, you have to market yourself, you have to deal with clients, although they're, you know, one's congregation and one's clientele.

But yeah, it's a very different type. I'm curious about that, but yeah, I hear you.

Yeah, but it's, you know, it's the same conceptually, it's the same thing. And so I had that information built in and that gave me, that gave me a head start that. But even despite that being the case, I can say that because I had a bit of information, I was aware of how important information was and is. And so I have spent a tremendous amount of time just sucking in information as much as I can to, in order to do the things that I need to get done. I also don't sleep. I am, I am one of those people that for some reason I can function at an exceptionally high level with little to no sleep.

I'm jealous, man, I'm so jealous.

A lot of people are, but it's that and just in honestly a certain amount of just blessing because there are certain things that have honestly just worked out for me despite where I came from, I have simply worked as hard as I could. I do that every day. And for me that has turned into something due to the fact that I knew how to build. I knew how to build something. So if I put the work in, I knew I could create it. I just had to figure out how to do it. So I got the information, did the work. A little bit of blessing. Here we are.

Well, as soon as we come back from this short little break, I want to ask you and talk a little bit about what's the next step, both for you, but also for the country. How can we get through what we're going through right now and find a way to live in peace and just stop the cycle of hate here, right? And perhaps most importantly, let's have some more rocking it moments. Let's see that next year. There's more rockin it than anything. I mean, this year's maybe an exception to the norm, but what can we do to see more rockin it? Stories next year and for me to get flooded with calls of people that wanna be on the show because there's so much cool shit to talk about that when we come back from this short little break. Thank you for checking out my podcast From Rock Bottom to Rockin It. I would love to ask you a question. I would love your feedback, please, on this book that I'm writing right now called the Standing Spot. It's about my own personal journey through some of my most difficult times as a kid. Dealing with peer pressure and bullying, gangs, violence, drugs and being arrested and my recovery out of it before even figuring out what my real time business was going to be. This was. This is just a story of a child who struggled and survived and it's my story and I'd love to get your feedback, please. I have the intro and prologue available for download right now on my website. Just check out standingspot.com just standingspot.com will direct you exactly to the free section that you can download the intro and the prologue. And please send me an email. Just let me know what you think. I'm trying to figure out if you think this is resonating with you or if there's some tips or suggestions you have in the writing or the storyline flow. You know, I'm a new author and of course I'm doing this show because I like it and I love it and I want to share and help people and that's the concept of the book as well. So please, please check it out@standingspot.com and send me a little email. Tell me what you think. It's free and I'd really appreciate your help. So thank you for that. And now back to this powerful interview. Okay, we're back now here on From Rock Bottom to Rockin it and thanks again for your time and oh yeah, everyone listening, you gotta remember to share this with your friends, right? Share this with people that need to hear it. This is a philanthropic podcast. I do not make money here. This is because I want to. It's a passion project. So share it with your friends, please. Just get it out there. I really appreciate it. And where we left off before the break, we were just about to talk about what's the next step. So what's the next step for both you, Mayenza, and also for our country here trying to a, you know, get out of this pandemic era and have some more rock nut stories next year. And also with racism, inequality, you know, how do we get through this and what's moving forward look like for you and for the country.

Okay, well, so for me, what it looks like is bridging the gap between here and Africa. So I am a dual citizen, actually a tri citizen, but I can. I can work here and I can work in Uganda and Nairobi and some of East Africa. So what my next step is, is essentially building my company here and building my company back home to create the option for people working here to be able to go to Africa if they please. So for me, America. America is a great place, but they're for us, it's a dicey experience. And we've been taught that our home, which is Africa, truly is unaccepting of us, doesn't want us, is, you know, a place where it's just what you see on National Geographic. It's not that there are a lot of beautiful cities. There's a. There are a lot of amazing things that you can do there and a lot of people ready and willing to accept us. So I want to be an example of that to show that that is an option for us. Here. I am in also looking for capital and individuals willing to team up to make this more of a reality. Basically is where personally I am just continuing to grow and build that and also create assets for us. Also information. As someone that has gained a lot of information about, for instance, so in our community, there are certain pieces of information that are very lacking. Financial literacy is one of them. How to invest, how do you use grants and all of business loans and things like that. A lot of that information isn't in our community. So by the same token, I also am creating. Creating the information that I know we need to. To do what we need to do here, like just. Just to function here. Because a lot of us aren't really in a place where we can function here informationally, realistically. So creating that information and making it available for free.

And you're right, by the way, I've never been to Africa and I only have a vision of what I see on tv, which is probably completely wrong. And I've just never been. So at some point that's gonna have to change and then my own perspective is gonna change too. So that's a cool initiative you got going.

Yeah. And it's, you know, and that's. That's everyone. There's a reason for that. You know, that's the American marketing at play there. So. But. And then as far as the country, kind of the same thing, it's information. Like the sad reality is, is that a lot of the. There's many Issues here. But one of the things that need to be leveled out in the country is information. Equity of information and equity of opportunity and equity of respect. Those are the three things that are not balanced in the country. And it's causing utter chaos. It's been causing out of chaos for centuries. And that is very long conversation. But currently, Currently speaking, what needs to happen is people just that. That. That equity needs to. Well, yeah, the equity. There's. There's no other way. It's equity in opportunity, equity and capital. Equity and respect. For me, for instance, to the same bank that refused to give me a loan for an almost identical company as my white counterpart, my friend, a friend of mine then two years later denied me opening a bank account because they didn't believe how I was making the money. Right.

Just messed up fundamentally. Yeah.

Like thing. Things like that. And when I peel away everything as far as why that happened, it's hard to say. It's anything but me being black. Right? So it's like. So it's that there's this. I can see that layer. There's a layer of just difficulty that is placed upon us and has been placed upon us for hundreds of years. And it's literally just the removal of that, just the. Just seeing us as a true equal. Because currently it is portrayed the way it looks is clear to me that there is a discrepancy there in how we're seen because the treatment doesn't add up.

And I'll never see it, I'll never experience it. I'll never fully understand. A friend of mine said the same. I got pulled over picking up a friend. Her and I were going to go for dinner and I went to go, you know, pick her up at her place and I got pulled over by the police. I was parked in it illegally, I think, and my sticker was off on my license plate, right. And by the end of it, the officer is apologizing to me for disrupting my night and told me to carry on. I said, well, what happens if I get stopped again between now and the time I go by? He didn't give me a ticket, of course, and he gave me his badge number to give it to someone else, another officer. If I got pulled over again, if I still hadn't done my shit so that he would explain it and get me out of trouble. And she's not white. And she gets in the car and I told her what happened. Her face just dropped and she's like. I literally got. She said, I got pulled over last week in this exact same spot, but I got a ticket, right. And she's like, look, that's white privilege. And I just thought it was a nice officer. I thought this is normal. Right. I will never understand, and I think it's fair to say that the vast majority of white people will never understand what the hell is actually going on.

Yeah. And that's the problem, is that everybody's context is too different to almost be believable. Because that sounds, that's, that story is ridiculous to me.

And she's a lawyer. She's a high paid, you know, doing well lawyer with her own condo and everything. Like her life is organized. There is nothing even remotely, you know, sketchy at all about this person. Right. I just wanted to clarify that I'm not painting a weird picture. This is a weird picture.

Right? Well, no, I mean, so, so this.

Is same with you, right?

Because. Because if this. So the story that you just told in the context of my life is unbelievable, I could tell you. So I think probably about 14 years ago now, I think I was 17, I, myself and two of my friends were pulled over, seven police cars rolled up, guns out, rolled up to the car, screaming at us, pulled us out of the car, threw us on a curb. And you know, all of this stuff in the middle, in the. So all of this happened at the end of it. They, they take, they took our IDs and at the end of it they sat us down for like 20, 30 minutes. We had no idea what was going on. They give us back our IDs and everything and they just say, yeah, sorry, we thought you guys were someone else. You're all set. You know what I mean? And so that's. And that is my context, right? Like that's, and that's insane.

It's insane because when I got my breach, I was obviously a minor and all that's gone and disappeared and doesn't even exist on my records, which is lucky for me. But of course we're in an honest show. So I talk about this. I got arrested one time because I was, you know, behind this bowling alley smoking a joint. And that's when it was illegal. You couldn't do that back then, right? And so I was with my buddies and yeah, please came up. But they were polite, right? They were really kind and considerate and almost jovial. You know, there's no guns, there was no yelling, there was no nothing. It was just, hey, guys, you kind of just broke the law, so I'm going to have to arrest you. I'm kind of sorry about that. But, you know, and then they let me go right at the end of it. And then, you know, I can only get the perspective talking to you or watching movies. Right? Like watching Straight out of Compton or for some weird reason I was really into Wu Tang as like a 10 year old, 11 year old growing up. And so now I'm watching that series, right? And watching the RZA kind of going in and anyways, and seeing the life that you had compared to mine is clearly different. I guess that's what I'm saying in a roundabout way and I'll never understand.

And that's, that's kind of the issue. And so it's that difference in context creates, creates the dissonance that we're seeing because it's a group of people saying, hey, this is terrible. And then the other group is like, well, what do you mean, everything's fine.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

They're. What do you mean? The cops are awesome.

That's exactly great.

Yeah, they're great. What are you, what are you talking about? They just walk up and hey, you broke the law. Get out of here, you little scamp. You know what I mean? That's good.

Scoundrel.

Yeah, get out of here. You know what I mean? So you're like, yeah, if that's what the police were, I would be like, this is awesome. This is amazing. But to me, but that's not my context. And so that is, the problem is that there's such a difference in context that again, it's just people screaming and it's falling on deaf ears because it's just, you know, it doesn't make any sense. And then at the same time, you're also taught not to care. Like specifically through media and images and everything, it's. There's an inherent value gap built into our minds about the colors of ourselves due to how we're portrayed in media. So if you always see someone always doing bad, they're always, you know, they show us like, Africa is just a jungle as far as most people not from Africa because of National Geographic, which they even had to apologize for, for doing, you know, essentially what the editor, what the editor explained is poverty porn. You know what I mean? Like, that's what they. If you, if that's the only thing that you're, you're seeing all the time, all the time they're shooting each other. It's terrible. It's. Yeah, there's. You're gonna build a value gap.

Yeah, everyone in Canada lives in an igloo, right?

You Know what I'm saying? So it's just the same thing. It's the same thing. It's like you, you. But when it comes to color, it's like, you know, it's all of those images and then on the other side, it's like Captain America, Superman.

Yeah.

You know, it's all these like, hey, we're awesome. We're white people rock kick ass. So it's, it just creates that gap. I mean, they made Jesus white. You guys made Jesus white. So it's like that even from a geographical sense. Doesn't make any sense. That doesn't make any sense. So it's like, you know, there's, there, there's a gap that's been built purposely and we're living in it too at the same time. So it's, it's not only is it the context issue, it's also, there's a built in value gap, which is why those cops walk up to you and they're like, hey, get out of here, you little scamp. And to me they're like 20 guns out. You know what I mean? In our faces. That's why things like that happen.

So rock bottom. We do it on every show. Let's dive in there. You know, people are listening to us talk right now. Let's help them understand. And for me too, what's your version of your absolute lowest rock bottom moment that's happened through this journey? Like the bottom right. You broke through the bottom at being so bottom right. What is that?

I remember leaving. This was probably about six years ago before I basically, this is right before I went to therapy. So I remember leaving work and getting to the parking garage and literally saying to myself, wow, everything is terrible. Like, nothing is how I want it to be. Nothing is how I was told it would be. And I didn't know how to escape it, but it was inside and I didn't know how to dissipate it. And so I drove home and called. I remember. Luckily I had enough of a frame of reference to know that, hey, therapy is a thing you should probably call.

Good for you, by the way, because that's not the automatic go to for a lot of people, right?

It's not. And at that time though, I had pretty much exhausted every option because I was drinking very heavily at the time as a coping mechanism and that was no longer sustainable. So, you know, went called maybe 20 therapists, like 10 called me back, made a few appointments. And that week I got into therapy and I was able to realize that all of that you know, all of the bullets flying and all that crazy. You know, my mother died, all that stuff, I just never dealt with it because, you know, I was just kind of living it.

Just tuck it away in a little box and throw away the key.

Right, exactly. So I would say, like, the moment of just the despair I felt in that moment, and everything just felt dark and switching over. Like getting into therapy and being able to let go of all of those things and talk through a lot of those things, and a lot of the trauma and craziness is freed up the mental capacity that I needed to then go on and build what I've built now. So it was the bottom, but it was a springboard because it literally gave me my mind back, essentially, and it gave me control.

And this is. Back to this. Is this because of the education background that your parents had that you grew up with, and you valued information. You valued that somehow because a lot of people would give up. A lot of people would not break through.

Right.

We all know statistically the amount of businesses that succeed or musicians that succeed, and of course, black people that succeed. Like, the odds are stacked against you. Right. And most people don't make it, but you do. And I feel like if we can figure out what that key is, like, what's the differentiator factor? What is it?

Right.

If everyone had that, whatever it happens to be, I don't know, where would we be?

Right.

When people have the will to break through and when you're at the rock bottom and your automatic go to was, I need help. Right. That's powerful. Right. That's where change comes from.

Yeah. I mean. Yeah. It's funny. Even that alone, just knowing to ask for help.

Yeah, exactly.

Like, even that alone is, you know, a big. A big thing. But I would say, yeah, information, it's. I've always known, especially because I had to learn a lot because I lived a very ambiguous. So when you have. When you have immigrant parents, it's kind of like you're growing up at the same time as your parents, because they're as blind as you are. Like, they don't know what's going on either. It's like you're watching a movie at the same time. So I had to learn a lot. When I learned things, things would change. So I learned that learning changes things very early. Also. My family is the first to get out of agriculture.

Okay.

So the way. Yeah, so the way any. Any society kind of leaps is through education. My family went from. My grandfather was a dairy farmer, and he was Able to pay for his children to go to school in England. Yeah. Send his kids to university. He was hell of a dairy farmer.

Yeah, it sounds like it.

Yeah. Yeah. Sent his kids to the UK for school. And that is what literally changed the trajectory of my family or I would still be on a farm, working on a farm right now. So information that's always been pushed in my family is like, education is the way to change things. And so I've always known. Okay, information, let's do it. You know what I mean? So, yeah, information is huge.

As soon as we come back from this final little break here, I want to dive into the opposite of what we just talked about. And you're Rockin it moment. The time when you realized that you've now overcome all of these obstacles and you're in this. I mean, there's always gonna be more obstacles.

Sure.

But when we come back from this short little break, tell me about your rockin it moment. We'll be right back. Thank you so much for sharing this show and spreading the love. Every time you click that share button or put it on your social media, it makes a big difference to those who listen to it, to the guests that I have on here as well, and to me personally. This is a passion project. And so all of your help, sending me feedback, sending me an email, clicking that contact me button on my website, all of that is amazing and it really touches my heart because when I was little and struggled, I dropped out of school, I got into drugs and violence. It was very difficult and I hit rock bottom. My own rock bottom in that context was when I was around 17 years old and I thought I was going to jail for a long time. I didn't know what was going to happen. And I got out because people, people reached out to me and helped me. People picked me back up and gave me motivation to move forward, just like you're hearing in these interviews. So this really is a passion project for me and I'd love it if you checked out my book as well. I tell my whole story on there. You can find it on my website, ericgilbertwilliams.com, just click on my book. I would love for you to download a free copy of the intro and prologue. It's there right now anytime there's an audio version as well. And now we're going to go back to the interview. Talk to you guys soon. We're back now here on From Rock Bottom to Rockin It. Thanks again, everyone for listening and thank you, Renzo, for being on the show. I know that I have a lot of work to do on the proper pronunciation of your name, but I'm working on it, I promise. And so everyone listening, please just subscribe to the channel. Share it with your friends. I really appreciate it. It's all about helping people. And now onto the funner subject is rocking it. Right? And just before the break, we're talking about the rock bottom, and you had this automatic, you know, you need help. And if we psychoanalyze that for a second, in order for someone to say, I need help, then first of all, be able to set aside their ego and realize they can't help themselves. And they have to actually have a burning passion, desire to do better. And they also have to have the perspective that where they are in that moment is a long way from where they could be. And they have to have the desire to open themselves up for change. So that that word, I need help, for someone to honestly say that I need help represents so much of a foundation. And I find it, that's where we get some really powerful change happening. And you did get that help. There was a lot of change. Tell me about what it was like when you were rocking it. How did you know that you were rocking it?

When I began to realize my true power, as I began to sweep away what had happened and the trauma and all of that, it was almost as though I turned Super Saiyan. Like, it was. Everything that was. Everything was inside me. It was just covered by all of these things that had happened to me that were keeping me from seeing who I was. And the moment I saw that, from what the. The moment I saw who I actually was, and due to that, then started doing things with intention. It changed everything. And it was. It was pretty quick. Like, I was in. I was in therapy for the first year. It was rough, very rough. And after that first year, again, it was silent. I didn't even realize how loud it had been in my head up until that point. But probably that after that year, it was. I was gone. Gone. I could do anything. And I can. I know I can. Because if I can, if I can do what I've done, and now realizing through therapy what I made it through to get here, then I know I can do anything. Of course I can. It's either that or die. And I don't want to die. So I'm just going to keep going, you know? So, like, it was that. That after that year and that clearing, that's when I really hit my stride. And from that point over, the past five years, I've been moving a thousand miles now.

And where does the music videos come into play here? Where does producing music fit into this picture? When you got your first music video done? Because it's very professionally done, right? You got a proper crew that did this and it probably cost you a shit ton of money.

Well, so, fun fact, I did that video 100% by myself.

Nice. Nice.

Yes.

You are the team.

Yeah. So I'm. I'm. That's. Yeah, that's the thing. So I. The music to me is the way that I express myself. Music is like. It's like a live journal kind of basically. So for me, the music is me expressing my experience and trying to give out my experience to people that, you know, can take it in, internalize it, and use it for themselves. And then at the same time, with the media production, I tried my best to bring an authentic, authentic depiction of my people and our art and what we make and also try to teach also how to generate income from the things that we create by ourselves, if we can create, you know, the business aspect, the business mechanism behind it. So it's. It's the both. I'm the. I'm the input one, but then I'm also a conductor of sorts at the same time.

And where does this sit on the rocknit scale? You know, was that a moment or was that sort of like, for most people that are musicians or aspiring artists? Like for me, when I really got into salsa dancing and competing and traveling for it. For me, you know, being on stage and competing in front of, you know, hundreds of people and not fucking it up was a rockin it moment. Right. And it became a contrast to. It's like a physical representation of I'm no longer the person that I was. And I'm wondering if any of that came to play with you or if this was just business as usual because you knew that it was going to happen no matter what.

No, there was. There was definitely. I think it's funny you said that video. So that song and video that you're talking about, Cold Blooded, is. That was the. That was the moment for me. That was when I figured out how to do me the way I had always wanted to. As in, it was the first time I was able to perfectly portray what I wanted to say, what I wanted it to sound like, what I wanted it to look like, and the message I wanted to push. So that moment when that song came out in the video, that. I'll remember that forever because that. That record was Also one of the first post therapy me records where I. Yeah, where I had. Where I. Where I. I had gotten into my mode. My. My kill mode. So that song. Absolutely, that song felt. That song felt good and was definitely a moment, I would say, because it's.

One thing to know that you've broken through the barriers and that you've moved forward in life, and it's another thing to see it, right? It's another thing. Whatever rock bottom or whatever sad moments or low moments might come up in the future, hopefully there's none. But whatever happens, you can always look back on YouTube and anyone listening, you know, check out his YouTube and watch the music video for Cold Blooded. Check it out. That's permanent. This is a fact of reality. That music video exists. You did it. The work that went into it is no one can undo it. Right. It's a finished product. If anything bad ever happens in the future, knock on wood, then you can always look at that and know that you can get through anything else. You can get through anything. You can make this video. You can live your dream, right? We're talking about living dreams. Anyone that's listening to this, that is either aspiring to live your dream, or maybe you're not living your dream right now, but you were at one point. If you did it once, you can definitely do it again. And if you haven't done it yet, you can definitely do it. Coming up is the point that I'm getting at. Yeah. Congratulations on breaking through that barrier and making it happen, man.

Appreciate was. I mean, it's, it's. It's an everyday battle, to be honest. It's kind of one of those things where if you. It's just like being an artist, you should try to be better every day. It's. It's that there's always new challenges. There's always, you know, new things that come up. But currently we're doing. I'm doing okay. I'm trying to make sure that more of us are doing okay.

Now, my final question I like to go into before we wrap up the show here, and let's have a little chat after, by the way, too, but if you were to go back in time and talk to yourself when you were having this rock bottom moment, right, when you were at the low of the low, whether that be moving to Boston and, you know, the first drive by, or maybe it was just having that breakdown and not sure what to do, right? Like, what would you say to yourself? The wisdom you have now and you had, you know, 60 seconds, hot tub, Time machine style. You just went back and talked to yourself, what would you say?

You know, I would say do it your way. As in, well, okay, I would say two things actually. The world you grew up in and the world you're in are two different places. And you have to figure out how you want to fit in your world. Now that number one, two, you can't do it by yourself. It's impossible. So I would say those two things figure out, take, take, take what you learned and remix it to yourself and don't do it alone.

Yeah, powerful. Thanks again for being on the show here. Is there anything you want to wrap up with? Anything you want to say to anyone listening or a little shout out? What if people want to, if people want to learn about your music or talk to you about social media stuff, where should they go? Maybe just tell people where they should find you. LinkedIn or whatever. YouTube.

Yeah. So if you want to talk to me, you can Instagram, just M U Y I N Z A. You can find me there. Also, if you are in need of media or marketing services and are in the LA, California, Nevada area, you can go to www.appartmedia.com and reach out to us. We can also help with marketing pretty much anywhere as most of it is now online. So Apart media, how do we spell that? Aprt media.com aprt media.com. yes. And also just, just one other thing I would like to say. If you are in need of any service of any kind or in a position where you are seeking services or products, it might take a little bit more time, but if you can, please try to look up a black owned business that a little bit of time will go a very, very long way in helping our community. So if you can do that, I know it takes a little more time, but please take the time for us.

If everyone makes a little tiny choice in the direction of resolving racism, inequality issues, if everyone just makes a tiny, tiny little decision, it's actually a really big change.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Thanks again man for being on the show. Appreciate your time. Let's stay in touch and I want to hear about what comes up with you in your future.

Of course. Thank you.

All right man, thanks for being on. From rock bottom the rockin it. To everyone listening, we'll see you guys next time and remember to send me an email, shout out, ask me any questions or tell me about some subjects you want to hear about in the future. I'd love to hear it. Love to talk with you guys and we'll talk with you again next time. And that's it. My friends, for this episode. We will see you next time. Please send me an email, say hello, give me some feedback, let me know what you think. Give me some tips and suggestions. I'd love to hear from you. Also, please share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, doesn't matter. Just get it out there. I really appreciate it. And we'll see you next time on From a rock Rock bottom to rocking it. Have a rocking it.