"Embrace the Pain and Anxiety of Independence, That's Ultimate Wealth" - Dame Dash

If I want something, I go into the future in my brain, which is powerful, and I visualize exactly what I want. And then I think about every single thing I need to do to make that happen and every single thing that could stop that from happening or what I need to avoid. Then I go right back like I was just in the future thinking about watching myself on my television network. Because I do that, that means I have to think what would be the worst-case scenario, and then I have to think what would be the best-case scenario. And then I eliminate every single thing that I think could happen, which I call art detecting. And then I put everything and every single attitude and around me in my vision that's gonna make me get to what I want. And also I try to get the people around me to think about the same exact vision. So you can inspire people and all that energy is focused on one thing that they can visualize in their head, then it becomes a tangible reality. And I know that to be a fact 'cause it's happened. It's a fact for me. So I continue to do that. I am really careful about how small my thoughts are 'cause I don't feel like wasting time in a 24-hour day making this much. And I could spend the same amount of time with the same amount of energy if I architected right, I had this much. And with this much, I can help so many more people that I love.

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Watch a top 10 with Believe Nation.

Hey, it's Evan Carmichael, and I make these videos because you are probably the most ambitious person in your circle, but you know you're capable of more, and you get that push by surrounding yourself with the best. So today, the song from one of the best, Dame Dash, and my take on his top 50 rules for success. Enjoy.

People were just slaves to pattern, you know what I'm saying? Like, if everyone does one thing, then everybody else wants to do it. And I'm a guy that never wants to, and ever— I never ever wanted to look like everybody else, right? So my thing is, I gotta stand out, I gotta be different. That's some Harlem, is that it? I think it's just, you know, it is, because again, like, when you make money really young, right, it makes you really confident, and sometimes people mistake it as arrogance. But like, when you're in a circumstance where you have no choice but to grow up and it's very competitive— it wasn't like I was the only young dude getting money, right? Everybody that was in my age in a circle was getting money, so it was normal, right, to conduct yourself like an adult. And then you were kind of guided by adults, right? So I just got used to a different pattern really young, and it was more of a freedom pattern that came with the survival and wanting to be the best at it. How is it being so-called so unpopular to make sure that others around you were popular? The funny thing is, number one, I don't care, right? Right. But number two, I, I feel very popular at all times, right? Right. If I'm The thing that people understand, I'm not a rapper, not a singer, not an actor, you know, I'm a businessman. So the fact that anyone even cares to me, whether they don't like it or do like it, it— I mean, on a business level, for a big picture guy, that's really all that counts. Like, on a personal level, there's social classes, right? So there's one class that's meant to work for those that don't work, and those that don't work are usually second and third generation. They're born into it. The reason why is those people own things and they pass it. Yeah. So what they do is they give another class, the working class, distractions, make them hate each other, make them want to do sports and only know how to do like what's a lotto. Like we're only programmed to say the only way we could get out of a social class to be workers is to be athletes or to be entertainers. And that slot is like lotto. But even in school, they distract you and say, here's every team that can go professional, but there's no like political team. They never show you how to be a politician or how to change a law. Or they have singing class and all this other— everything to distract you. So, and that's lotto to win at that level, right? So that means everyone that's trained their whole life to get there, which is 90% of the world, which is the working class, only 1% gets there. And that person that was an entertainer, or is a, you know, they get to get into the 1%, but only if they sell out and distract everyone else that they were a part of that helped them get where they got to go. And I'm just not down for that pattern. And it's strategic. It's not like, you know, like the way nerds, people that aren't strong, control. You know, people that are strong, like, be like, whatever, you jump in front of me, I fight. But people that are weak, they have to be strategic about how they control. So brain controls muscle, and that's what's been happening. We've been controlled. We've been programmed to hate each other, kill each other, be happy to have a job, happy to work for someone else, and only happy to be able to take care of yourself. So everybody comes from a place of self-preservation. Everyone's always worried about themselves. And the purpose of love is to love people before you love yourself. But now look at the way the system is set up. In school, they take your kids from you, and then they tell you unless you go to college— and this is, you know, the majority of the world, and the majority of the world is the working class— unless you go to college, which you can't afford Unless you get a loan to go to college, you've done something wrong. So you go to college, you get that loan, and in order to pay off the loan, you got to get a job you don't want, and you still desperate. And in order to buy that house, because you paid that loan, you ain't got no cash. Now you got to get a loan, another loan to get the house. And so you always have to be working from backwards. You always have to be worried about yourself. And what I find when I'm around desperate people is they, they're all right with, with, yo, I got to do what I got to do to eat. They, they sometimes justify doing things that are not honorable to survive. So, you know, everyone's always in a place of fear, a place of backpedaling and self-preservation. And that's the problem. The test is to love others before you love yourself. And that's what a real boss does. The test is to think about the future, not the present. Your present is only dictated by what you did in your past. So you got to start planning. It's chess, not checkers. What is your definition of culture vulture? A person that makes money from the culture but doesn't live the culture. A person that doesn't help the culture that making money from. A person that intentionally hurts the money, the culture, so that they can monetize it. A person that takes care of their children based on somebody else's work and their labor and makes them think they have more than they do so that they can continue to work for them. A person that makes you believe you're dependent on them, that you need them to get from point A to point B just so you can monetize it. That's a culture vulture. And that could be Black, white, whatever it is. Black culture vultures, culture. There's white culture vultures. There's every kind of nationality. And the worst culture vulture is the one that does it within his own supposed culture. That's the one that's the devil, because he's pretending to be something he's not, and that's cheating.

Also, to make sure you're actually taking action after watching this video, I've designed a special free worksheet just for this video. The worksheet will highlight all the lessons learned in this video, as well as pull out our 3 favorite learnings and quotes that will inspire you to actually do something. The worksheet will also give you space to write down what your key takeaways are and your specific plan of action to make sure you're getting results. If you want the worksheet designed specifically for this video, absolutely for free, there's a link in the description below. Go click on it and start building the momentum in your life and your business. I'll see you there.

What I tell my staff, and everyone that works with me is the more you care, the more you prepare, period. And thinking is a part of that. You'd be surprised how many people are scared to think. Most of my arguments don't come from me pushing somebody physically. It's from me pushing them to think. I'm like, "Goddamn, you don't wanna think?" Like, that doesn't eat— Like, it's harder to run a fucking mile than to think. So why is it less scarier to work out than to just think? And it doesn't take any physical effort. It's about a perspective. Why are people so scared of the unknown? Just 'cause you don't know an answer. Like, Google was so foreign to me up to a couple years ago, as surprising as that may seem. But Raquel, who's my wifey for lifey, remembers the moment that I was like, "Holy shit! I could find out everything all this time." You know? All I would've had to do was look, and I would've seen how easy it was. But because it was unknown in the moment, I thought it was complicated. How many times do you get a remote control? It does 3 million things, but just because you don't know how, you can't figure it out. You're like, fuck all those other things. Even though if you look at it, it will make life a bit easier. My purpose was to let everybody else eat that wasn't eating, that deserved to, and to bully the bully, oppress the oppressor, and always give us self-awareness. Not one second that I was in the music industry did I ever act like I wanted to be with the people that were exploiting the artists. The problem always was with the executives was I was like, nah, you're not doing that to the artist. And then, you know, what an executive will do is play dirty and snarky and go start lying and do things that you wouldn't do or expect to do. And they just start to make a division between you and the person you're protecting by saying you'll get more money by not listening to them when actually that money goes to them. I think the truth is most important, and I think it's inexcusable not to tell it. And I think if there's something on your mind on a truthful level as a grown-up, you should be able to articulate that. And sometimes people don't like what you say, but it doesn't mean it shouldn't be said. Right. So, you know, 9 times out of 10, a man that's full of testosterone that's in front of girls, you know, if you tell them how to improve themselves or give them some constructive criticism, they tend to take that as you trying to make them look bad because they want to look better than you. I decided to hit the street because I just wanted to buy a Suzuki. They cost $10,000 and I didn't have a license and my mother didn't want to buy it for me because it wasn't legal. So I was like, "Well, I'm just gonna have to get that myself." And you know, crack came out. So I was watching a lot of people my age have things that adults had, which gave them a certain amount of independence. Like if you're paying your own bills, I don't care how old you are, no one could tell you what to do, period. And that's what I tell any one of my children. The minute you pay your own bills, all I could do is give you advice, but I can't control your environment. So when I got to this place, The only way to survive was honor. And what I witnessed, I admired. I admired the strength in honor because honor isn't convenient. It's not, I'm honorable when it's easy. Honor comes when it's not easy. That's your definition. That's the test. That's what defines you is when you have the choice to not be honorable and it would appear that you'll get something and life may be easier. And if you choose honor and you choose a harder path, well, you know which you really are. And that's what that is all day. It's a test all day. There's always these shortcuts. But the thing about being in that life is you make one mistake, you die. You make one mistake, you lose your life in jail, your freedom. You make one mistake, people you love get hurt, like kidnapped and tortured. Logically speaking, to survive that, you had to be honorable. And I saw the things that the honorable people, the respect that came with it, the strength that came with it, and how cool it looked. I just didn't want to be anything but that, no matter what. And everyone that's practiced that, my friends 20, 30 years later, like in Honor Up, that's really my OG. That's really the guy that taught me those principles. That's the voice I heard it from. And imagine 30 years later, him being able to say, "I told you, be honorable and you'll get this." And it happened for him, it happened for me, and all the other people that have lived honorably. So there's truth in believing in honor, and I can say it by experience. And I also can see the lack of honor, the things that I came up on that are so different, that how much people look the other way, how many people actually fail that test, and the recourse of that. The unhappy life that comes with the perception of being happy, of looking like you have more than you do, or that you're smarter, tougher, richer, funnier, or anything that you pretend you are and you're not. Because you can't— it tortures that person. They all look for an escape, whether it's a drug or any kind of addiction, to just not face and look in the mirror. To not be able to look at yourself in the mirror or take that shower That must suck. But I don't know how that feels. I know how it feels to have no conscience, to look in the mirror, be alone, and be like, I'm real happy about every single decision I make. A bunch of thorough people, a million thorough people can't do nothing to one thorough person. I don't care what it looks like. I'm here and I look better than everybody else that's been talking about me. I'm doing better than everybody else that's been talking about me. And I've been fighting on my own. It ain't no announcements. I give you that work. I don't even have to be liked and I'm still here. Or it might be look like I'm not liked, but they still buying it. See, in the street, you don't like the drug dealer, you like his drugs. You don't care if he's nice, you don't care he doesn't promote his drugs. He's not saying thank you for buying. He says, get in line, I'm not taking fives, only twenties. And if you talk too cute to me, I won't sell it to you at all. Now get out of here. You don't have to be nice when your work is good. You just have to be honorable and respectful. And the people I'm not nice to deserve it. The reason why people take jobs is because they got to pay their bills, right? But me, like, I don't mind paying bills a little late, you know what I'm saying? I'm gonna own it. I just rather— I'd rather struggle a little, you know what I'm saying? If it's late, it's late, but when I got it, I pay it, you know what I'm saying? And I pay a lot of it. So, you know, it's just like the difference between corporate and like an individual is corporate has money to lose. So in any business, you lose money for like 10 years, that's what happens. It's because you have a big pocket, so you could lose it and be comfortable. Like, anybody could buy a celebrity But how much profit are you really making? It's like walking up to a dice game and you got the most money in your pocket and you just keep stopping the bank. So you might lose, lose, lose, but you keep betting it all, betting it all. You lose, lose, and then when you, you know, eventually a headcracker is going to happen or they're going to ace, you're going to win, get all your money back and be up. That's business. But, you know, corporate, they have a pocket. It's not their money. It's a fund. They go get other people's money. It's stock. It's public. So they can lose. Like when I, like business plans, they'll be like lose $2 million for this year, lose too many, like 10 years to lose. You have— if you have a deep pocket for that, you could be in corporate business, but an independent doesn't have that kind of money to lose. You understand what I'm saying? They can't just take losses. You can't just be hiring people, paying them, and you ain't making no money, right? You understand what I'm saying? You count everything when you're doing it independently. But so what, you know? Not to say Fidel Castro's virtues and all what he believed in as far as, you know, the communism thing, but he basically said, fuck it, I'm gonna be independent and I just do it myself. I'll just be a little behind, but you know, independence is priceless. I think the test and the reason why I continually keep getting tested where people keep treating me unfair is to see if I will lose faith in people. But I'll never lose faith in people. I'll always try to invest in things and people that inspire me regardless, 'cause my agenda's not really to rob you. It's just I'm actually getting something out of it. So, shit. What are you getting? It's pretty interesting 'cause you've had— Experience. The experience. Like I said, if somebody makes a record And it's a historic record, and I was in there while it was made. How many people would pay to be in a room with Jimi Hendrix when he made, you know, Purple Haze? Would you? Yeah. I would. So I've been in that room a lot. I've been in a room people— I got paid to be in a room that people would pay to be in while history was made. Like, you know, Biggie Smalls is a friend— was a friend of mine, still is. He said my name in raps. Wouldn't you have paid for that? To be in the studio with Biggie? Or "Old Dirty Bastard." I was in the studio with them. Or be in the studio with Puff when he wrote— when Source wrote "Every Step," the Sting record. I was there. There's so many historic moments. The money doesn't mean shit. It's the experience. People read the Bible sometimes, and I think they get the message a little misconstrued. Like, you know, the way Jesus went down was he sacrificed himself for his kids. Right. Right? So his kids didn't have to feel his pain. Right, right. So I looked at that like, number one, if you're a good guy, you're getting hung up on a cross. But number two, You got to feel some pain so that the people you love don't, right? And it just happened from God on down. People expect me to get punched in the face, not to beat somebody's ass. If I get smacked, I'm punching, period. There's a time and a place for everything. But the majority of my life, as you all see, I'm laughing, I'm happy. When I get in the ring, I'm just a fearless, ferocious fighter. I want that smoke. Did that so-called scare the business? What business? Just like, you know, the entertainment. I'm not in that business. See, we in two different vibrations. I'm not in the soldier. Business. I'm in the general business. I'm not in the slave mentality business. I'm in the master mentality business. We playing two different games. When I look at something, I don't say, yo, how do I buy it? I say, how do I make it? You feel me? When I look at— I want to make a TV show, I gotta have a network. I'm not making a record, I gotta have a— you know, I don't look at things in that variation. I can't. I never have. I don't look at nickels. I only look at weight. I can't see nickels. I can't talk nickels.

Define what you consider wealthy.

Wealth is happiness completely. It's how much you laugh and how much the people you love laugh. And that's really what love is and how much time you spend. Like sending money back to somebody like a child, it's not considered love 'cause kids don't care about money. I remember when I was a child, all I wanted for Christmas was for my parents, for my mom to get back with my dad. And I didn't, I wasn't able to give that to my, any one of my children. So I still have work to do. You know, I haven't hit that wealthiness because I haven't been able to take that most important pain to a child and take that away from my children. I haven't broke that cycle. That would be wealth. If my children don't have to pick a side, if they don't have to watch us fight, if they don't have to tune out 'cause they don't want to hear us argue. You know what I'm saying?

What's gonna be the secret there?

What have you learned that you'll apply? Finding the right woman for the right reasons. So it's great 'cause I was really able to recognize it in Raquel, but I was like, nah, this time I'm staying, we are doing everything together. Fuck all that. I enjoy this too much. So it's always looking at it from my kids' perspective, my woman's perspective. I think I've learned to take my eyeballs outta my head and put it in theirs for a second to see what they see and what would make them comfortable over me. As a boss, your job is to think about your business and your staff before you think about yourself. It's the same thing a dad does or the head of a family. So I guess me being conscious of these things at 47, being evolved enough to take the time to appreciate that, that to me is wealth. You know, uncompromised, great quality of living. Like, I prefer not to have to live in a house that's not big and all the luxuries that I've worked so hard to get. But I think every circumstance Raquel and I have been in, we've been equally happy, whether it's a big house or a studio apartment. The thing that we haven't, as a culture, been able to do is practice nepotism. We haven't been able to pass offices. But I'm proud when I walk into my spot and I got different buildings, and then I go into your spot and you got a building, and we got our own companies and our children walk and do what they want and work just like they do for them. And it's not a color thing, it's a, it's a mentality thing, you know what I'm saying? And as a mentality, we have to understand we're supposed to help each other, we're supposed to push each other forward, we're supposed to evolve each other, we're supposed to stick together, we're supposed to be— why don't we, Dame? Why don't people are insecure? They think it's easier to pretend than to really do it. Is our culture insecure though? Human, human nature is insecure. Everybody fights. It's not just us that fight each each other, right? The whole world fights each other. Our whole mentality is slavery. Everyone has an apartment, right? You're the boss in your apartment, right? No matter what, no matter how little it is, if it's— whether it's a big house or a little house, that space right there, you're the boss. That's what your business is. That's what your life is. You create the space so you can control it. You control your environment, but you have to architect that. You want to live in the house, build it, you know what I'm saying? Nobody gonna give it to you. But once you get in that house, I don't care if the president or whoever it is anywhere. He walk in my house, Obama, you still got to listen to me in this house. It means nothing. I'm the boss here. So you create your own house, you do what you want, make sure you enjoy it, and then you pay. You get paid for it as you sell it. You got to work harder than everybody else, but it's something you can pass to your children. It's just about controlling your environment, right? But working a little harder to do so. Like, people think it's safe to have a job, but if somebody could fire you, how is that safe? You know what I'm saying? Period. Like, you got to be nice to somebody. If they don't like you, they can fire you. And the people that could fire you don't be owning this shit neither. They be supervisors. So then it becomes like political. There's no politics when you the boss. It's my way or no way. I'm the boss. You don't take your shoes off in my house, you don't come in my house. Period. I show people based on what I go through what not to do. You know, I don't hide nothing. You know, I've chosen, I've signed on to making money with the people. Not, um, from the people, with the people. I'm rich, everybody eats. When I eat, everybody eats. And everyone will tell you that. That's the problem. Like, if I help 100 dudes and 10 run off, all right, but I'm not going to help the other 90. It's always going to be thieves, insecure people that want to pretend they did something that they didn't. They always do. Well, you know, that's why guys like Brian White and Josh Weber and Mike Munster try to pretend they directed my movie and I made it because I did something so cheap and so good that they were like, oh, I gotta have this. And then they want to paint a picture like they always try to make a good guy look bad just so that they don't look bad. But you know what happens? These people are weak. And it doesn't matter what people think, it doesn't matter what people say, it doesn't matter. All that matters is what they do. All that matters is action. Everybody always worry about my tone. Worry about my action. What's my action? What I say? What do I do? Now everybody want to talk nice but don't do shit. Everybody want to talk about things but don't have any solutions. But they talk so militantly, but they just saying what's popular opinion, but they have Solutions. I come with a solution and I fight front line like a king because a king fights with everybody. I fight. I don't never send somebody to do something I wouldn't do myself. I'm about that action. I got to be. I got to lead by example.

Why did the death of your mom affect you so much? And exactly how did it affect you?

Well, number one, at that age, it was the only thing I was scared of and it happened. So once— why did it scare you? I mean, because it's what I love my mother more than anything. You know, I was a kid that went to camp and was homesick. You know, when she went out and came home late, I would be like, you know, she's all I had. My mom's, you know, I was the only child from my mom's. So when she died, you know, and for a child, what more do you have to be scared of, right? So when she died, I had faced my worst nightmare. So right there, I was fearless. I just wasn't scared of nothing. I just felt like if anything happened to me, I would just get to my mom quicker. And at the time I had no kids, so it wasn't really like I had anybody to worry about.

Me.

But then also I was like, but if I'm gonna be on this planet, I'm gonna have to, you know, take care of myself just as good as my mother took care of me. And so at that point, I had no choices, you know. I had to make money to eat, you know. I had to make money to live and buy clothes, you know what I'm saying. There was no option. Either she was gonna make me great or I was gonna make me great. Either way, I was gonna be Dame Dash. Some of us acting like bosses, right? But some of us really are, right? Some of us looking like bosses, right? But some of us really are. Nigga, if you're a boss, where's your office? And it better be yours. You better be paying the rent, right? You see some P&L. Let me see you pay some employees. Let me see you broke for a second because you ain't collect no bread. You know what net 30 is? All of that type shit, right? If you a boss, you know about paying and all that. You know about paying people before yourself, right? All that. You know about every time you start a new business, like when you make a movie and, and like we make movies, how long it take to get the money back? Years. Years. Nigga, how nigga go— decade. Look, think about how the bullshit is. Like everyone knows, like this kid puts his own money up even for his own movie, a million of his own, but he's broke. Yeah, you know I'm broke because I got money in equity in businesses. Like, I don't want to drop records, I drop— I drop businesses, you understand what I'm saying? Like, I sell companies like niggas sell records. That's my game. I play a different game, right? Right. So when they say, how many records you saw? I don't know how many— how many companies I saw? I saw Rockaway, I saw Rockefeller, I sell companies. There's men that don't sell companies their whole life, don't know what it means. You sell records, I sell companies. And I do bars. But it's true, you know what I mean? That's like a real fact, you know what I mean? And every time I sell one, that means I started from scratch. That means I had to be broke. I had to feel some pain, pause. I had to lose, sustain, look fucked up, and then go sell it and make up some bread, pay off some bills, and start again. There it is. And then you flip, because I learned that from the street. Like, yo, I could buy something for $20 and sell it for $40, right? You know, if I break it down, I buy something for $40, break it down, sell it for $80, right? That's just what I did. I made a record company so that I could do a clothing company, a clothing company so I could do a television network, right? Flip, flip, flip. Next I'm gonna flip forth. And you gonna keep going. You— it's hard to keep a real boss down now. Well, nobody never been down here. That's the thing. They can make you look a certain way, right? But bottom line is, I don't know, man. I, I— like, when I do my Instagram, I'm not outside. I'm in the house. I'm in my office. I'm not trying to front. I'm not posing. Like, my natural life looks like a movie, right? So at any time, I've never had a problem. I ran around the world and opened up galleries all over the world. Like, I got DD172 in Tribeca, Poplington, and Lower East Side. I got One in Burbank, one in Hong Kong, Po Hung Fung. Yeah, no one ever wants to talk about that, right? All the cultural things. I'm the DNA of what I want the culture to be at some point, and I want us to be tasteful, right? I want us to be evolved, right? I want us to deal with things like men, not emotion, right? I want us to really be rich, not look rich. I want us to be friends. I want us to stick together. I want us to take care of our kids. I want us to take care of our women. I want that to be cool. I want selling out to be sucker shit. I want looking the other way to be sucker shit. I want treating women bad to be sucker shit, right? With little girls to be sucker shit. I don't want People will be with people even though they do fucked up shit. Looking the other way gotta stop. You got to be accountable. Why are cats scared to have them conversations, Dane? Why are cats scared to say what you— You ask me about fear and I don't even know what that is. The only thing I fear is fear. So you asking me about a concept I don't understand. That's not— that's no bueno. That's not even— I guess cats don't want to talk. People will hide and just follow. When you say— when you speak— except for people like you— when you speak boss, you don't understand fear. What language is that?

Fear.

What does that mean, right? You know what I'm saying? Like, what do you— what, what is that? You got to translate that to me. I don't even— what is that? I've never understood. Bosses don't speak fear. What does that mean? You know what I'm saying? Like, if you're a boss, fear doesn't even come into it. What I do is I'm a businessman, right? In any business, the more crowded it is, the harder it is to do it. So I never want to hustle on a crowded block. So regardless to what, I'm always looking to do something that nobody's doing. So all I was looking is was what's the next wave logically. It was just logically I was paying attention, you know what I'm saying? So once I realized that, I was like, it's the internet. Like, I came up with no internet, no emails, no nothing. Like, I had to pay for real estate to be seen on, like, you know, cable TV or radio. But this freedom was ridiculous. And plus, like, it was like, damn, if I know how to make this shit myself— like, content is like currency. It's the thing that makes money forever and ever. It's like when somebody smokes a joint, the weed is gone. You got to grow more weed. When somebody looks to something, you could pay over and over again to see it, and you ain't got to keep making it. So if you make something that people see— plus when you make content, it's a commercial for everything, you understand? So I just look at what people pay for and do it myself. I'm the plug. I'm never a customer on any level. So I just look at it from that approach. So I look for the future hustle and how to be the plug at it, and then from that it all falls into pieces. It made sense with the internet that people would be buying content. It made sense with the internet like, oh, We could cut out the middleman. It made sense with the internet that if I have a voice, I could be heard uncensored. I'm used to complete censorship, so it made sense to do it on my own. I did all of it on my own without this shit. So could you imagine what I'm gonna do with this? I just— I started sitting by the pool and smoking weed. It was like, I gotta slow down. I think when you have consciousness, you become responsible, you know? And I think the truth is a heavy burden because usually the truth teller gets crucified like Jesus. You know, the person that tells the truth is always going to have to fight the people that are lying. And because the people that are lying or cheating, you're not fighting the same fight like this that they'll do, you won't do. So how do you protect yourself? You got to be extra strong. You got to be like Batman. You got to be like a superhero but looked at as a criminal. It's a life you got to choose. And that's the life that I did choose because life has been so easy for me. I've had so much fun every second. I've benefited They monetize my everything that I love at every time. You know, I'm 47 years old. I'll be 47 in May. What else should I do? You know what I'm saying? And plus, I don't like the people that are taking advantage in front, and I think they're soft. And I want everybody to know. So that's why I call out names like Lior Cohen and Charlie Wok and Barry, Barry, what's it? Klopp. Thank you, man. Barry Klawberg, you know, Steve Stout. All of those people that I feel have done that and have really taken advantage, I think I don't want other people to get taken advantage of. So that's like if you see a child molester in the neighborhood, it's your responsibility to say, yo, don't have your kids around them. And I love my culture like they're my children. They're not my children. I'm not being that cocky, but we all family. So I'm gonna look out for my cousins and my family at all times.

If you had to sum up the— your message about life, what would you say?

I mean, you know, my name's Dame Dash, right? And what is the dash in between the beginning of when you born, you die, that dash, that's the life, that's your life. So I think we're here to live, we're here to learn. You know, we're not here to be perfect. We're supposed to embrace all our imperfections. And I think if we find and can imagine the bright side, in anything that will become a reality. But you can't think anything's gonna be given to you other than opportunity. And the only way to show appreciation for opportunity is to react. Not to say thank you, but to actually do something. And not everyone gets opportunities. So I think appreciating those opportunities is really important because the next time, those opportunities will not be presented. And I think every single day for everybody, there's a lesson, there's a test. And if you don't pass the test, you do not move forward. You stay in the same place. And then that test becomes a little harder. And if you don't pass it again, you actually go backwards. And then instead of the test being in front of you where you can look at the test, it's in back of you and it's smacking the shit out of you in the back of your head and it hurts and it's embarrassing. So I always advise people to look out for those tests. Not the ones when people are looking, just when no one's looking. Define the culture vulture thing. It's someone that exploits a culture and benefits from a culture that it doesn't help, you know, period. That it just hurts and it just sucks out everything from it, but it could give a fuck about it. That's a culture vulture, you know. And it happens more times than not. I mean, it's all over the place. Well, creative people usually aren't so worried. They exploit it. Well, creative people usually aren't so worried worried about monetization. You know, they want to pay their bills, but non-creative people are solely making money off of a creative. And they don't get the creative people. And it means they kind of have to rob them. I first got record deals and I didn't like the experience of it. You know, they were telling me— I just— it didn't work out. And I had Jay-Z. I had Jay-Z and I was shopping Jay-Z. And every single person in the music business, I took them to every single label. And they told me he was too old, too corny, nothing. Just damn near laughed me out. Every one of them could not see where he was. So we had to do it ourselves. Sure. So off top, we kind of— because when you're the plug in the street, you think like the plug everywhere. Yeah. So I'm thinking, who's the boss here? Who do I need to talk to? There is no boss in corporate because no one really owns it. It's public. So I was like, I got to do this on my own. So we did it on our own. So knowing that we had the best rapper on the planet, knowing that these were the lames that were making those decisions, that, that business model never worked for us. So we decided to make our own business model and do it on our own where we never had to compromise any integrity or any compromise of equity. I would love to know what your outlook is when you in your past have had a setback. How do you— I've never had a setback but death. Okay, that's the only setback is health and death and jail. Other than that, those are just life tests. So like, what's a setback? Like, if a friend comes to you and they feel like they failed at something, what would you tell them to change that perspective of the word failure? Turn a loss into a learning experience. Do it again until you get it right, period. You never did anything right the first time. Practice makes perfect. It's just like you ain't gonna make a muscle the first time you pick up a barbell. You gotta do that shit and do it for a while, then your blood pumps, and then you strong. Go get strong. Pull your skirt up. That's what I'm gonna say. I'm not gonna be nice about it. I'm sick of that shit. Everybody's depressed because they're trying to fit into a puzzle. They're trying to be a circle in a square. And you, you're told what to do, and you're told what to eat, and you're told what's good and bad and what the perspective of success is. Success is love. Success is your family. Success is how much you laugh. I don't care how much money you got in the bank. If you got a crooked smile, if your people around you don't want to be around, your breath stinks, and all that other shit, You're broke, period. Right. You're broke. If you have nothing to fight for, you're broke. You have nothing to love, you're broke, period.

What are some key elements of your honor code that, one, are just absolutely central to it, and that, two, if you could pass to the culture in an instant, what would you pass?

I mean, if you have an agreement with somebody, if me and you have an agreement, I don't care what the rest of the world looks at as bad or good. We have to honor our agreement, period. So honor means that when you agree and you guys have, as men or a professional, an adult, your word got to mean more than anything. You know, if you say you're going to do something, you got to do it. And that's what the street kind of was. You know, it was like, even though the rest of the world doesn't believe in certain things that were going on, there was this code. You know, no snitching, you know, no messing with your homies' girls, no serving anyone pregnant, you know, just things that were laws that were unwritten, you know. But there was honor. Honor means more than anything, bro, and it protects you no matter what. And I could just say that based on my experience. That ain't no street shit, that's just some real shit. The street might— like, I'm a guy that maybe I need to see some fucked up shit to learn honor, and maybe that's the reason why I was put in that situation, because once I learned honor, I'd be able to affect the rest the rest of the world. Like, you never know why things happen. That's about perspective, right? What do you do, like, just to relax? I mean, you're always running. What do you do to, like, just— other than the kids, just— is there something you meditate? I smoke weed. I lay by the pool a lot. Good. Like, you know, this is cool. Like, I wasn't here all day, you know what I'm saying? I came in when I felt like it. I went and got my daughter, came back, went back, you know. I went— it's living life, but I'm doing it on my terms, right? You know, I'm doing it like, like I'm, I'm productive, but I'm not tired because I'm— when you doing what you love, like everything I'm doing, I would do for free. This, like, I'm lucky enough that I can monetize what people do for recreation, you know what I'm saying? So how could I ever complain and be tired? I'm having way too much fun to be tired. Have you ever watched a James Bond movie where it doesn't look like he's losing at some point and then he wins? Or Batman or Iron Man or any superhero zero. There has to be some diversity for you to, you know, overcome, to win. You know, you can't be a champ unless you, uh, you know, are in a place where you look like you're gonna lose and then you win. The pain that's going to come with being independent, you have to embrace it because it's going to happen. And also know that the more successful you get, the more problems you're going to have, the more knots you're gonna have to untie. Being a boss does not mean smooth sailing. It means having the ability to care about other people before yourself and to untie problems, untie knots. That's all it is. There's— it's not business there's not problems. There's nothing good without struggle. It just doesn't happen. In all my experiences, there hasn't been one thing that's been successful without me feeling some pain before it was successful. So now when there is pain, I embrace it. You know, I've been embracing it. I'm a G about it because I know that must mean that if I'm cool, that, you know, what awaits me is like the darkest before the dawn. I don't want to like sound corny, but that's really what— that's what has to happen. On one hand, yeah, my mom died. It broke my heart. But on another hand, it made me great. It's about perspective. What I learned from it, how I choose to look at it, you know, like sometimes I'll talk to somebody and, you know, they'll be abusive and shit, or they'll be drinking. They'll be like, you know, why the fuck you do all that drinking? Why are you so abusive? Oh, my dad was drinking. He was abusive. That's all I know. Then you ask somebody else and they're like a straight square. They don't drink and they're not abusive. And you'd be like, yo, how come you don't drink? Like, how come you're not abusive? Yo, I saw my dad. It's just about perspective. And then that's how I look at things with my pops. I was like, I know I'm a good dad because everything he did I didn't like, I ain't doing to my kid. I'm not gonna pass the cycle. But you know, some people might look at it and say, I'm just gonna pass the cycle because he passed it to me. Perspective. How did you apply the stuff from the street to the business world? Well, let me explain it to you. So when you deal with a bunch of people that are tamed and you're a wild animal. You get in the room, you laugh at them, you don't be scared of them. I always thought they were a joke because I had executed business under different circumstances, so I always thought they were funny. And also because they were working for other people and I was putting up my own money, I didn't really respect as much. Like, you know, a boss wants to talk to another boss. So it made me know not to be corporate when I went into that world. I went very arrogantly. I didn't feel like— because I was always ahead of the game. I got my first deal at 19, you know what I mean? So So I felt like the people that I was dealing with shouldn't even be talking to me a certain way, even telling me what's cool, because they were nerdy to me. What we were leveraging in that point was cool. I was selling music, swag. I was coming from the authentic street, like in the '80s. So it wasn't nothing that you could tell me. And then I had a mind because I was educated. So I saw them trying to trick me into believing I was dumber than I was. So for that, I was a beast. It was, it was just like, it was a joke, you know what I mean? So I did it. We just did it on our own. So you took it personally? But you were offended. I mean, it sounds like you were offended. I mean, I'm passionate about everything I do. This is about creative business, okay? So of course when someone disrespects your intellect, you take it personal. I'm a man, I got testosterone for sure, sure. But that's part of being an entrepreneur, you know what I'm saying? But also I'm coming from a place where I had to fight for my real estate and prove that you shouldn't have it. So certain kinds of people can never talk to me a certain way, you understand what I'm saying? Just because they didn't— they weren't men like I was men. Again, they weren't taking— they weren't weren't putting up their own money, they didn't have the cool, and they weren't doing what I was doing. It was like I knew always my worth at all times, and I always knew what my brain was capable of doing. I come from a very extreme circumstance, you know. I come like frontline street, like 142nd and Lenox. And if you did break any of those laws, you died or went to jail. So I didn't have too many choices. So I don't really know no different, you know what I mean? So I just applied everything I learned from my survival skills and obviously I survived. And I came again from a very dangerous place. I survived it just by being honorable, playing the game right, being loyal. And I was like, yo, this game right here is not sustainable. Niggas die. Being honorable means you got to kill when they disrespect you. You got to go to jail and not, you know, all that type shit. That's not a game I want to play. I'm going to just take these ideals and apply them instead of to crack, apply it to music. Instead of to dust, apply it to fashion. It's just taking the same principles and applying it. And everything I've learned really has come from hustling. It's just flipping. You know, you buy something, you bottle it up, you sell it, you make double, and then you put that back and you keep doing it. So once you know that discipline, why else do you need— why do you need anybody? Like, I never wanted anybody to hit me with no work. I never wanted that. What I saw in Kanye's face when he was helping us is something that people don't get. When you help people that deserves it, it gives you a really good feeling. It makes you feel better than anything. I saw him smiling and laughing, and I was like, he gets it now. Because that's how I feel every time I help somebody get where they got to go. And you know, I did it just because I wanted to, just because I was inspired, not because I was trying to exploit them, but just because I really liked who they were and what they were doing. And I want that to be a contagious energy. And I really hope that overall, that's what Honor Up does. It makes Honor Up be the new wave, looking out for the people that looked out for you, doing the right thing. I'm a very sophisticated guy, you know what I mean? I have good taste, right? And I've always loved art. And only thing you need to make a gallery is walls. So, you know, instead it's just a narrative. I call it a gallery, it's a gallery, and I put art on it and people come in. If they buy the art, I get 50% of it. That's the art business. But what it does is it brings very artistic people together. So, you know, art brings all kind of creatives together, actually. I always have a collective. So because when someone's good at editing, they're usually good at a lot of other things. Somebody's good at rapping or singing, they're good at acting, they're good at painting. Like, creators are just creatives. And you know, sometimes people only do what they think they can do. If you don't know the business, you just say, oh, I can't do it, so I don't. Just like an art gallery. See, me, I'm always thinking on how to do it, and it's usually not that hard. And then I also look at who does it, and then I compare myself, right? Yeah, like, he can do it. Do you think bosses are born or are they made? I think everyone has the potential to be a boss. I think you are born a boss and made a slave. No one's gonna choose to be a slave. Who the fuck wanna be a slave? You gotta be trained to think that life is good when it's not. Yeah, you born a boss until somebody convinces you you're not. Yeah, I'm born a boss. If I could breathe and I'm in control of that, I'm a boss. And anything I own is mine. No matter who you are, you cannot come in here unless— if I'm not breaking the laws, do not come in here. And if you do, it's on my terms or you breaking the law. You know, and I can be confident and arrogant about that as long as I'm not breaking no laws. I just don't see the reason for being mad about making mistakes. Like, I just— I don't know, man. I think I got yelled at one time when I was 4, and I felt embarrassed, and I didn't like that feeling. So I did what the guy did with the cold. I figured out how to never be embarrassed. You know what I'm saying? Teach me how. You just don't give a fuck. Once you don't give a fuck what people think, like logically speaking, why would you care about what someone's opinion is that you don't love, that doesn't love you, that's not even playing the same game you're playing? That's only, you know, the only reason why they have something to say is 'cause they're insecure. Like, I don't, I just, I don't see why I would be concerned about some insecure asshole. Like, I think 1 million lames combined combined cannot equal one cool person, and meaning someone that's just honest about who they are. Like, being— it's not relatable, it's not realistic to think that anyone is perfect and anyone that is is evil, because it's just not true, you know what I'm saying? And the good thing about imperfections is what makes you cool is how you deal with them. That's what makes you cool, you know what I'm saying? So I've never been afraid to be wrong. I always remember back to when I was young laughing at older niggas. I'm never gonna be that older nigga I was laughing at. I'm never gonna be that old man in the club. I'm never gonna be the dude that, you know, just because that one time I wore that outfit, everyone thought I was fly, I'm gonna wear it for the next 30 years. Like, I'm not doing that, you know what I'm saying? I'm gonna evolve, I'm gonna grow. So it's not reinventing, it's y'all learning what I learn as I learn it. I'm just— I'm growing. Once I learned this business was whack, I did another one, you know. And I said, I'm gonna go do art. My midlife crisis was running around the world, open up art galleries, you know. I like to do fly, cool. They got— I bank on cool. I just like to do cool, you know. So I don't— I just think I— and I got to be smart about it. Like, I got to be the plug, I got to be the connect. So once I know how to do it myself, I could be real arrogant about it. And then I do it, and when I win, it's like everyone thinks you're losing and you win, it's so much better. Like when was making me the underdog, I was cracking up. I was like, this shit is funny as hell. You know what I'm saying? You know, and I could be patient. I think I'm gonna do it by the pool. You know what I'm saying? Like I come out when I feel like it. You know, it's never been urgent. I never found my Batman or the Joker. I haven't found my competition yet that inspires me to fight. I just feel like impressing my girl and my family and me. I don't even feel no competition. I really don't. I did the record label thing years ago, so I couldn't go back. It'd be like, you know, pitching nickels to me just because I did it before. No disrespect to the company or to the music industry because there's a lot of bread there. It's just I did it. So, you know, the expectation of myself is to do something that, you know, fits the levels that I should be at. And what I noticed was, you know, number one, we were outsourcing so much shooting music videos, and we making the clothes, and, you know, I like to make movies. It just made sense for me to have my own television network. And, you know, when the internet hit, because I'm always looking for independence, I was like, oh, shit, I could do it. And I didn't feel the need to outsource. Like, I always feel like a Johnny if I'm paying somebody to do something I know I could do myself. Like, I always feel like the plug. I can grow that. I ain't buying it from you. I'll grow it and sell it to you. You know, that's my approach on things. So I also feel that I'm also really good at making films. So because I can make films, make movies, I understand the game. I really, like, ran the cash register there. And because I have a business mind, I'mma invest in that. I tried to bring everybody that was, like, kind of doing it at the time. I'm not even gonna say no names, but you know every name I'm talking about. Put them in a room, raise the money, and one motherfucker just would not do it. It's just like, why don't we want to have that power? It's like the more power we give each other, people start to think they're taking it away from themselves. Right. It's like people don't understand when you share, all of us together are way stronger than us being alone. You know what I mean? An army is always better than a singular person if they're all on the same sheet of paper. Everyone can always equally win because that way you can never lose. If I borrow a little bit from everybody in this room, I'm rich. So I'm going to keep you all rich as my friends so you can make sure— because I spend all my money so I can make sure I'm all right. You know, I need a favor. You know what I'm saying? Like, the only purpose for me to make everyone that I made famous is so that they can help me without putting up a dollar. So if it really comes down to it, Jay, I need you to Instagram that. Yo, Kanye, just do that. It don't cost a dollar to Twitter something out for me. All I need is for you to leverage your celebrity. It doesn't cost you a dollar. Just bring attention to my brands. That's what I made you famous for. If we stick together that way, we cannot lose. I haven't had my big deal yet, you know. I'm trying to get a Billy. That's why I got to keep betting it all, because the money has been short for me. I've been like, this ain't it, you know. That's why I'm telling you I'm still on the block grinding. I'm still flipping because this ain't it. What I made, I can't put up. I can't look at it, you know, or I'll spend it. I have spending habits. I like good things. So I haven't got that deal yet. You know what I mean? You know, like, it's all relative. Like, you know, if you're in the street, the first time you get a bird, it's a big deal. Like, oh, shit, I got a bird. You know, that's the success of a— for, like, someone in music, like, getting on the radio might be the biggest deal. But then, you know, Or the first time you get a tour bus, or the first time you perform at the Garden. You know, there's so many different things. So, like, things that I thought were big, once I get them, pause, they're not big to me no more. Like, once you make your first million, like, man, quick, you're like, that wasn't nothing. That can't be big. I did too much too young to give it up, to even be impressed with myself yet. Honestly, every single second of my life is meant— and everyone else's life, I think— is meant to be a learning experience. So when something happens that didn't go the way you wanted it to, you look at what you learned from it, right? And there's been businesses that I got completely robbed for short paper, but what I learned from it protected me from getting robbed for big paper. You understand what I'm saying? So at the end of the day, I'm so happy in this very moment. I'm so happy, like scary happy, you know what I mean? Yeah, I think that's like the misconception. In the matter— in the middle— in the middle of a pandemic, all my dreams are coming true, which is crazy to me. So I would have to say if there was any anything that would stop me from being this happy now, or that would change— it's like, is there anything I could have done that could have made me as happy as I am now? I'm happy now because every decision that most people thought would be tough, every business I walked away from, every person I walked away from, every person that I punished that everyone told me not to, from a Leo Cohen to a Harvey Bernstein. I'm glad I did it. I'm glad I was in a position to do it. I'm glad I'm that guy that these guys are known to be bullies and I bullied them. I'm the bully of bullies. I'm happy about that. So I love the fact that these challenges and these tests have presented themselves to me, and I could get in the shower, I'm like, damn, I really am a superhero. I never ever waver when it comes to honor, never have. I've walked away from people that no one would walk away from. I barked on people that no one would bark on until everyone is barking on them. I did it alone. Look at me and use me as an example. Um, like, you've seen that people have tried every way they can to discredit everything about me, from my pocket to my girls to everything, you know what I'm saying? To my family, like, everything, everything. And you see that when I'm actually doing things that are good, people try to say I'm doing things that are bad. But at the end of the day, I haven't had to come outside, right? I haven't had to come out of pocket and do something that was kind of like, you know, against what my morals and my principles are. I've been able to maintain being my own boss, sustain a certain kind of lifestyle, and all because my work is good. So if your work is good and you're honorable, it doesn't matter what's going on around you. You got to keep your head down and move forward because all the negativity is all a test to see if it will distract you, right? But like, again, if you know it's raining outside and somebody tells you it's not, you're like, yo, I don't care what you say, I'm bringing the umbrella, right? I don't care what you say. You could call me a clown, all that other stuff. I already know because I have this thing where I look to my future, right? I don't look— and I don't look to see like, you know, how it starts. I want to know how it's going to finish, right? So I'm always doing that, right? And I always see what I want my life to be, and I make sure it's that. Right. And then I detect that. And then, no, like, it'd be people that have no plan, that aren't doing anything, are the most distracting, right? The ones that speak the loudest. Because if you're doing something, you don't have time to be worried about somebody else, right? You don't have time for jealousy if you're doing something. You're too tired doing what you're doing, right? So if you're sitting around thinking, that means you should be doing some action, right? So that's your fault. So then the overcompensation comes for blaming somebody else for the reasons why you don't want to move. I'm not that dude that says if you do this, this will happen, and then it doesn't happen. You're just sitting around waiting. You do the right thing. In my, in my world, you do the right thing. Like, if his dream was literally to sit and play his album for Kanye, I watched his dream come true, which it was, and it happened in a week only because he did the right thing, right? You know, if his dream, like he said, his dream is to sit here and do it, I, I— that happened because he listened. Respect will make your dreams come true, and respect is not convenient. It's not when it feels good, it's when it makes you uncomfortable. When, you know, someone feels like, damn, I don't agree with him, but because I respect him, I'm gonna do what he says anyway. That's respect, and I'm not going to say a word about it. What's your theory behind having multiple different avenues working at the same time? Okay, imagine this. Imagine your number one artist after his first album saying, I quit. That's Jay-Z. Jay-Z quit after— what do you mean? He retired after Reasonable Doubt. Supposed to be his first and last album. Did he? Yeah, it's supposed to be— it's supposed to be his first 15 albums later. Yeah, so, you know, You know, from that day I was like, well, I ain't depending on this nigga. I'm gonna build a roster. What? How long did he retire though? Like, it was like a month he had? I don't know. Volume 1. He didn't retire. He just passed it in volume 1. How many retirements did this nigga do? A lot. All right, so I lost count how many times you retired. So that, that, and I don't even care. That pushed you, that pushed you to just diversify. Yeah, I was like 19. Damn, I was that young. It wasn't only that, it was just that I was a guy that just thought I could do everything better. So it was like, I'm fresher than Ralph Lauren, I know it. I met this nigga, I'm fresher than him, I know I am. I know I'm cooler than Harvey Weinstein, you know what I'm saying? I done shook this nigga down, you know what I'm saying? He's not I'm not the only one. It's my little man, you know. I see what Charlie— you know, all these dudes, Charlie Watts and Leo Cohen, I'm like, this nigga, you know what I'm saying? Y'all scared of him? It's my little man. Some people try to dumb you down as a distraction just because they just don't want to— they don't want to work. People are so scared of thinking and so scared of action, you understand what I'm saying? And that's what I'm about. I'm about thinking things through. And action. They don't have the wherewithal to see their ideas into fruition and to be tangible and to be real. And they don't, they don't think that getting to where they want to go is going to be difficult. How difficult is it really? It's huge. It's boxing. It's getting punched in the face to win. Yeah, that's what it is. You know, to practice, you're hitting that bag, but you're getting hit. Like, you gotta spar to get where you gotta go. So you're gonna feel broke, you're gonna have to feel anxiety, and if that doesn't make you feel comfortable then it's going to be hard to be an entrepreneur. But you got to know when you get in the game that you're going to get tackled. You got to get up. You got to work wounded. You got to stay positive and you got to care about your other people sometimes, most of the time before you care about yourself. I only like to be around cool people. I've always architected my bubble. I only want to be around cool opinion leaders, like-minded people. And I filter and I edit people. You have to have a point of view and you have to have a voice and you have to be unapologetic. And when you do that, you don't stand in a crowd because most people just want to fit in. Just being different is a win in this world. Everyone is just— only feels confident in a crowd. So when someone does stand out, it's different. I don't have time to be worried because I'm always like, if I feel something's giving me anxiety, I go fix it, right? Or else if I let it rest in me, you internalize it, it causes like sickness and cancer. Yeah. So that's another thing is You know, I laugh a lot. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? You know me. I don't— I would— I— my everyday is therapy because I hold nothing. Yeah. And what people have to understand is if you hold it in, when you go to therapy, you're gonna have to get dark before you get light anyway. That's therapy. Yeah. So the reason why I get dark real fast is so I could get like real light real quick, you know what I'm saying? So I could be like, you know what I'm saying? Right. I, I don't hold no luggage, right? You know what I mean? Like, when people ask me questions, I'm gonna answer it. Yeah, I'm gonna address the elephant in the room. But ain't gonna fuck my day up. Yeah, so like just in that moment you're asking about Flex, yeah, I got like, you know, engaged for a second. Yeah, I spoke about it. Yeah, but we move off it. If you bit with the entrepreneur bug, you're always going to want more, but self-care is important. Make sure you get some sleep and make sure you celebrate yourself and make sure you're enjoying yourself. You know, I'm a firm I'm a firm believer in I would never do anything and get paid for it unless I would do it for free. So you didn't pay me for this, but I could get paid for this. What I'm telling you is this: by me saying do not perform over a track, like I got to see a live show, like I have a whole 5,000-square-foot facility where you could rehearse before I could even co-sign you, that's actually educating into what the fundamentals of hip-hop, what the fundamentals of real music is. And a lot of people cannot step up to that challenge because it feels different, right? It's a band. Well, you have to rehearse. It's like 8 hours a day to get good. It's not anything easy. You can't hide. You cannot hide. And you know, also, you can't trust everyone's sound system. So if the track doesn't play correctly with the mic, it sounds terrible. And you never want your music to be heard terrible. Your purpose of performing live is so people want to be vested in you and buy your merch and, you know, keep a connection with you. So you have to show 100%, be prepared at all times. And if you're not prepared, like we get a hit record tomorrow, and you've never done a show, but you're gonna have to perform at the radios, like, you know, Summer Jam, where there's 50,000 people, and you come out there unprepared, you're getting booed. That can end your career, a bad show. I care about people to a certain extent, but I can't care about you when you care about yourself. I can bring you awareness, and I can leave you with that, but I'm up in the hills, bro. You know, I don't see it all here. I choose to help because I love, because I love myself. See, unless you love yourself, you don't know how to love nobody else, period. You can't tell me how to love if you don't love yourself. Just like you can't tell me how to get money if you ain't got none. You know what I'm saying? You can't tell me to be at peace if you're not at peace. You want to help everybody else, but you drowning. I don't understand it. Focus on yourself so that you can really help somebody. And that's the problem with people. They try to use that shit as an excuse. So many people, I say, what's your dreams? Oh, to help people. But you crack broke. What is that? Your dream should be not to be— to take care of your children and make sure your girl is taken care of. That's your dream. They never have to work. And then you go help everybody with the money you made. But it shouldn't hurt you to help people. Independence is priceless. It's just people that have never had it don't even understand. And I don't even expect them to, you know. And independence means usually putting up your own dough. You have to put up your own money. That's independence. If someone else is putting up the money, that's Dependence. You understand what I'm saying? Now you gotta move when they say move. You have to ask. You have to be nice. You have to laugh at jokes that aren't funny. You know what I mean? You have to be around a racist and let them say little things, little cute things. A nerd, square, that wouldn't survive in the street. And independence is like being— like, let me tell you the perspective of someone that's independent. If there's like a wild dog and he has to literally eat the food he kills, he cannot eat unless he kills something that day. And then there's a dog that's tamed, he lives in a house, but he has 3 square meals a day. He got to do tricks, he gets petted, he gets kicked out, he gets beat, he got to get walked, he walks on a leash. When that dog comes in the room with the wild dog, the wild dog is laughing. He doesn't care that you're in a mansion. He doesn't care that you eat steak every day. He still thinks you're a herb. He knows he can take from you because he knows he has to kill every day to eat. You know what I mean? And that's a confidence that's a rock star. And that's the one thing that I know I will never give up, you know, the ability to be that. Like, I laugh at anyone that's a caged dog, you know, walked on a leash, told when to eat. He does tricks Tricks and rolls over for a check. Why is it so hard to bet on yourself for a lot of people? Like, what's the hardest— why, why is that so hard for people to do, to pull up their own money and bet on themselves when they see it really works out eventually? Because when you put up your money, that's a struggle, and a lot of people don't just want to walk into a struggle, you know. It's like some people don't— even though they could fight, they're not really, you know, have the discipline want to go to training camp and really focus and, and see it through. And like, they don't want to walk into the, to the struggle to win. You have to— to want to win means you have to embrace pain, you have to embrace struggle, you know what I'm saying? Like, you have to know that nothing's going to be easy in order to be the best at it in the world. You have to do it and push yourself where most people won't, you know what I'm saying? You got to be up for that, man, you know what I'm saying? Like, you— if you up for it, you could do it, but not everybody's up for it. But not everybody really— conceptually they want it, but do they want the pain it takes to go get it? And I have a lot of— like, there's people that I like, there's things about them I don't like, but I respect the fact that they're gonna fight to get what they want. The fight, regardless of whether our perspective is different or not, that fight every time, whether it's wrong or right, the person that fights the hardest wins. You really believe in yourself and you work hard at it, you'll achieve it. The question is Am I ready to work so hard that I'm better than everyone else? You understand what I'm saying? And you have to answer that question within yourself. Am I ready to embrace all the pain that nobody else wants to embrace? Am I ready to really work harder and do it so much that I'm better at it than everyone that does it? It's really about the work ethic, really. It's a professional work ethic. You can't just be good at something. You have to be able to see things through and do the things that you don't enjoy. It's not really about the things that you enjoy. That's the easy part. It's the things you don't enjoy. That's the things that people usually shut down about. They just don't like it. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean it's a failure. What I do is I'm a businessman, right? In any business, the more crowded it is, the harder it is to do it. So I never want to hustle on a crowded block. So regardless to what, I'm always looking to do something that nobody's doing. So all I was looking at was what's the next wave logically. It was just logically I was paying attention, you know what I'm saying? So once I realized I was like, it's the internet. This freedom was ridiculous. And plus, like, it was like, damn, if I know how to make this myself— like, content is like currency. It's the thing that makes money forever and ever. It's like, it's like when somebody smokes a joint, the weed is gone. You got to grow more weed. When somebody looks at something, you could pay over and over again to see it, and you ain't got to keep making it. I just look at what people pay for and do it myself. I'm the plug. I'm never a customer. Do it yourself and leverage your own celebrity, right? So instead of letting Instead of letting somebody else make it, we make it, and then we don't have to pay for the marketing. It's easy. So now that I'm a brand for doing that, I can now completely invest in myself. But there's two games. One is making good work and one is leveraging celebrity. Right. The good work, you ain't gotta move. Good work, they find you. You ain't even gotta promote your destination. When you ain't doing too good, that's when there's the overcompensation. You start hitting red carpets every day and doing other to distract the fact that you have no talent. Confidence and not giving a fuck is the— it makes you so lean. Like the don't give a fuck. Factor that makes it where you don't care what people think. You never feel like you're being judged. You never want to be a part of a crowd. And you just, you know, you're just fearless about the way you feel about things, you know? And then also you got swag, you know, you just, you just do what you want regardless of what people think. And it feels good. It's tough, you know, initially, you know. Well, when you, when you, when you're brand new to independence, it's a mind state. It's a mind state. It's a tough mindset. It depends on what you value as wealth. Like if you value your freedom and your happiness as ultimate wealth, or if you value perception and physical things as ultimate wealth, you either gonna— like physical things is temporary, so you're gonna hustle for the temporary, or you're gonna hustle for the forever. Your soul is forever. Absolutely. You know, you don't want to cash that out, you know what I'm saying, for temporary things, for physical, you know what I mean? I think that's the ultimate test. It's like, yo, you're gonna really be wealthy, meaning are you gonna be happy, are you gonna look happy? You understand? You're gonna worry about how people see you and buying physical things that make you look better than you are, or do you really want to really feel good? How do you want to make money? I just want to— this is what I do, right? Take yourself to 5 years. Where do you want to be in 5 years? See, the thing about it is, to shoot a movie, you need a script, right? You can't just freestyle it. You can't say, I want to say this, or kind of like that. You got to be very direct. And then you put all your energy to what you want. You visualize it and and then it has to happen. I'm a filmmaker, so you want to make movies? Yeah, I want to make— I mean, I've done that, but I want to do it to where I don't have to worry about a regular job. Yeah, this is the way I would do it. So I would make as many short films as I can just so people can start seeing that you're good. I would star in the movie if I want to be in it, or in the short film. Like, a real artist is someone that's damn near obsessed with it. Like, a painter should be painting 8 hours a day, a band should be rehearsing 8 hours a day. If you're a businessman, you should doing your business 8 hours a day. So if you're focused on something and you're doing it 8 hours a day, then you're doing it at a professional level. But you got to know what you focused on, and then you can take things into your own control. It doesn't happen overnight. It's not easy. Expect pain, expect anxiety, expect everything to go wrong, and just be cool. Breathe easy, and then just see it out. Because a lot of people start but don't finished when things don't happen the way— it's never going to happen the way you want it to happen, ever. And if it does, do not trust it. It's the devil.

There were so many amazing talented performers that came out of New York in the late '80s and the early '90s. Mary J., Biggie, Jay-Z, The Firm, Wu-Tang, and you were like a big part of that. Did you realize at the time how big that movement was going to be and then what it was going to mean for the rest of the world than the rest of the music scene?

Yeah, I did. I did.

You could feel it at the time?

Yeah. I knew that. That's why I was the person that was documenting everything, because I knew everything I was doing in that moment was legendary. So the way I would look at it would be like, damn, could you imagine if you had Jimi Hendrix and David Bowie and John Lennon before they cracked, or Mick Jagger in like a studio or just kicking it before they got famous? And then imagine when they did. So because I was so confident in everything I was doing and all the people around me, I knew that what we were doing would probably set the stage for history, you know what I'm saying? I didn't think anybody was cooler than us, and I knew it actually, and it, you know, turned out I was right. You know, in Harlem— I'm from Harlem— we had a crew called the Best Out, and we used to throw parties, and, um, at the Cotton Club we had Kid Capri DJing, and we used to make t-shirts and we had our names on them, and we used to have basketball games. And a lot of people tried to do what we were doing. We were emulated. Like, I remember when we were throwing our basketball games, would be like us, the Best Out, versus Kev Chiles' crew. They were called Boss, and it was crazy at the Gaucho Gym. And then the next thing, I would see Puff do a basketball thing, but, you know, it ended up being tragic. But I knew that he was influenced by what we was doing. So I've always so seen how my influence has been on the rest of the world from day one. And it still is like that. People still, you know, take what I do and they're influenced by it. That's why I think at this point in my life, at 46, it's important to do things that are positive positive. So are people going to emulate what I'm doing? They're emulating something positive, like eating healthy, like taking care of yourself, like being good to women and taking care of your woman, being a good dad, like loving your children. Like, to me, that's ultimate wealth. Loyalty is not convenient. If you only— you can't just be loyal when it's like easy, convenient, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. Like, if there's a bag of money but you got to do the wrong thing and be disloyal to somebody, we walk it all out. Robbing friends. Yeah, you know what I just, you know, so sometimes, you know, respect to me guides you and protects you from everything. If you lead with respect on anything, the right things will happen, you understand? I've never seen respect put anyone in harm's way. I've only seen respect always, always protect you. And then also, the ultimate test is always like to disrespect the people you love to to get something physical, like some bread. You understand what I'm saying? That's the test, you know what I mean? And tests aren't meant to be easy, you know what I'm saying? Like, that's what my test would always be. It would be like, am I gonna play my culture or am I gonna get that dollar? You understand? And I just couldn't do it because I might go tell my family. As many times, I'm sure you could have played the culture. Yeah, all the time. You know, that was my problem with the music business because it was such a, uh, it was such a loyalty to my culture to exploit it the way it was being exploited and letting other cultures exploit it and not saying nothing and being like, it's all right just because I'm making money. So just because I'm all right makes it, you know, because I fought through it, it still didn't make it all right to just sit there and watch them rob the rest of the culture. For me, that's what I always fought for, you know what I mean? There was like guilt with it always, you know what I mean? Just being around people I didn't want to be around. People make me the underdog. It's funny because they don't understand what the game I'm playing. Just because I'm not playing your game or just because I'm not moving at the pace you moving, it don't mean I'm wrong. You know what I'm saying? Your win ain't the same win as mine, and it's never been. Like what I've always— like when someone thought a record deal was dope, I was like, a label deal. You understand? Like, oh, I got— you got a record deal, you should have a label deal. You know, you might have a TV show, you should have a network. You know, that's just how I think. I have boss thoughts. I'm always thinking Boss thoughts. I don't know what— chapter right there, boss thoughts. I don't— calm down. Yes, I don't, I don't know any other— I don't, I don't know any other language but boss, boss language, you know what I'm saying? So when people don't talk in boss to me, I don't know what they're saying, you know what I'm saying? It's a language. There's approach language, like, like people approach things like bosses and people approach things like workers. A lot of people don't want to be bosses because there's so much responsibility that come with it, you understand? They scared of it. And I always say that, you understand what I'm saying? But a boss only can think about it in boss terms. So if somebody says they want to get in business, some people might say, oh, I need somebody to give me a job. That's not a boss thought, right? A boss says, if I want to get in business, my thought is, if I want to get in business, I'mma create the business, figure I'mma buy the business, you understand what I'm saying? Then I'mma do the business, but I'm not trying to be be hired. My approach is always going to be bossy, you know. Someone that's not used to being the boss, his thought process ain't bossy. He don't have boss thoughts. Fluent boss, you understand what I'm saying? Yeah, fluent in boss. And if you don't talk to me in boss, I don't understand what you're saying. For real. And people will think you're an asshole because they'll be like, no, that's not how I approach things, right? You understand what I'm saying? That's— I'm not celebrating that, that you got When you hear boss talk, it's like, I speak that. Yeah, I speak that language. You could tell when somebody else talks boss just by their approach on things. And someone that talks boss doesn't speak any other language. I only talk boss. The minute I had daughters, I was like, I gotta change everything. I can't do anything to a girl that I don't want another man to do to my daughter.

So that was a real turning point for you?

The daughters, for sure. My daughter's changed my life. When my second daughter Tallulah was was born, I decided to quit everything to make sure that anything I did, I put her first, not the business. See, before it was like business first because I got to pay for the kids. But it's like, if you're not there to spend the money with your kids, it really doesn't matter. They need you and your company. And I saw all the things I was missing. So what do you think I'd rather do? Be on a yacht pouring champagne or a girl or taking my daughter to get a cupcake? It's nothing better than taking your daughter to get a cupcake. There's nothing better than watching your baby smile. You know, so it's true, you know, but I, it's like seems obvious, but you know, lotto is really like energy. It's love. It's not like physical money, which really doesn't mean anything. It's just how good you make someone feel. It's how good your woman feels, how good your children feel. Like you got as much money as, you know, billions of dollars. But if you unhappy and you lonely, you broke. If your kids are unhappy, you broke. You know, if your woman's unhappy, you broke. It's all about effort and what you can visualize in your mind. You know, if you can't think it can happen and if you don't have confidence that it's gonna happen, it ain't gonna happen. So if you doubt yourself— like, you know, I box, or at least I used to. I'm not getting in the ring unless I know I'm gonna win, or else I already lost. I look at everything I do like that. I'm winning. And it's a mental game too. It's 100%. Everything is about perspective and what you consider a win. You know, some people People think they're winning because other people think they're winning, even though they don't feel good about what they're doing. Like, oh, you think I'm winning, so that must mean I'm winning. But I feel like that's not winning. You know, you have to know what makes you happy, what you consider a win. Not everybody's winning the same, you know what I'm saying? But some people like to fit in with their Ws, but not me. The reason why people take jobs is because they got to pay their bills. When you say be a boss or be independent, everybody should be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs. Everyone has an apartment, right? You're the boss in your apartment, right? No matter what, no matter how little it is, if it's— whether it's a big house or a little house, that space right there, you're the boss. That's what your business is. That's what your life is. You create the space so you can control it. You control your environment, but you have to architect that. You want to live in the house, build it. You know what I'm saying? Nobody gonna give it to you. But once you get in that house, I don't care if the president or whoever it is anywhere, he walk in my house, Obama, you still got to listen to me in this house. People think it's safe to have a job, but if somebody could fire you, how is that safe, right? Period. Like, you got to be nice to somebody. If they don't like you, they can fire you. And if they— the people that could fire you don't be owning this neither, they'd be supervisors. So then it becomes like political. There's no politics when you're the boss. It's my way or no way. Because I believe that you see that at any point, no matter how much you contribute, that whole thing can be taken away at any particular time. Right. So how does somebody then go and just make that shift to the same they're doing for somebody else? Do it for yourself, right? If you're a paid editor, edit your own movie. You're a paid writer, write your own magazine. You know, it's like, the thing is, nobody ever gave me anything. No one gave me real— no record deal. I had to do it myself, right? So imagine if I would have waited for a deal for Jay-Z. There'd be no Jay-Z. There'd be no Kanye. There'd be no Lee Daniels. There'd be no Kevin Hart. There'd be no Rachel Roy. None of that. You know what I'm saying? None of them. I had to build all that. Like, no one's gonna hire me to direct, you know what I mean? No one's gonna hire me to be the CEO of a company. I made the company, I'm the CEO of it. What I find is a lot of people are really insecure about themselves. They don't think they're as interesting as they are. So many people be so quick to make money off other people's experience. I'm like, yo, but you got your own. Like, what's the purpose of that? It makes no sense. Say that again. Yeah, and that's what I had to do. That's what you had to do, right? Once we started to believe in ourselves, we just work a little harder, but you end up reaping all the benefits on it on your own terms, and it feels 100% good, and you can control the people you around, and it makes the most sense. I wanted to capitalize, capitalize on everything I thought I was the best at. So I thought I was the best at dressing. I didn't think nobody could dance better than me, so I thought I knew what hit records. I knew I had the best, most authentic experiences, so I knew I'd make the best movies, and I just wanted to do all those things. But in hindsight, I just like to do because I like to be fun. I'm really creative. Yeah, you know what I mean? I just like to be artistic freely. And, you know, it's like, I don't know, I just, I just, I just like doing it. I just thought, you know, I think I just— I'm having so much fun. And, you know, when you get success relatively young, it's like, you know, you get settled, but then you're gonna get bored. So, you know, I was a mogul when I was in my 20s. So I was like, I want to go do fashion. I want to do— I want to run around the world. I want to— everything I see or hear about, I want to see it personally. I want to live it. I want to know what I want to experience, and I want to spend every kind of bread.

How do you feel about Rockefeller today? Is it the same attitude that—

I think it's a shame it doesn't exist anymore. You know, I think the way that it dissolved was kind of selfish, but I ain't going to get into that, you know what I'm saying? But it would have been nice to see everybody doing well as opposed to one person. And that's the way I wanted Rockefeller. I made it, you know, I believe in the circle of success where everybody gets rich. I don't want to make employees I want to make bosses.

Yeah, it's more of a family enterprise.

Well, it was, you know, but then it turned out to be one person stayed rich and everyone else had to work for him. And that's not how I looked at Rockefeller. And what I realized is I need to make and invest in things that I could pass to my family. So I had to invest more in myself as opposed to investing in other people, because not everybody has the same idea— ideology as me, you know what I'm saying? Not everybody, you know, looks at things the same way. So You know, I should have probably paid a little more attention in making assets that I own as opposed to making other people. Because my thing was I was putting people in power so that they could put us in power. But every time I put somebody in power, they would shut the door and they just wanted all the power.

You know, people get hungry as soon as they get—

it's just human nature. It's how men are. It's the testosterone in them. That's why I also surround myself more with women, because women don't tend to be so jealous.

Do you think that's more of an exclusively male thing then? I think females aren't as like hungry when they get in that position.

I think males are so supremely insecure that they turn into clowns. A lot of people will cheat and try to cut corners, but I don't consider that a win, you know what I'm saying? Like, if I know the game I'm playing and I sign on to it, that's the only way I want to win at it. I don't want to cheat to get there because then I didn't win at my game. I actually lost. You actually lost, you know what I'm saying? But you know, I'm not gonna play your game. I only play— you only cheat when you don't fully believe in your abilities in the first place. Yeah, it's overcompensation. Yeah, for sure. But then that's like a different kind of win. You know, you're playing a different game. I have bigger dreams than trying to be getting a salary from some company. You know, I need to own something. I need legacy. You know, like the Dashes are going to be— they are. I already know it. We're going to be like the Kennedys and the Vanderbilts. You know, we're going to be an upstanding family. You already are. That's what I mean. That's what I'm saying. I want it easy for my kids, and I want it easy for my kids' kids. And that's all I'm doing right now, just making sure that the company can run when I'm not around, you know what I'm saying? Family and company, that's what, that's what, that's what, you know, it has to be able to sustain. Everybody says they want to be the boss, but people be scared to be the boss. Most people are scared to put up their own money. Most people are scared to tell people to work when they don't want to. Most people are scared to even ask for their money, you understand what I'm saying? Like, people— I've seen people that are uncomfortable about asking about their own business, like asking for change, you know what I'm saying? Or asking how much do you get paid, or when am I going to get paid, or where's my money. I have never felt uncomfortable about asking for my bread, and I've never understood people that were uncomfortable for asking for their bread. And I really don't understand people that are offended by you asking for your bread, right? You know, you ask somebody for their money and they're like, what you asking? Like, I'm not supposed to ask for my money? I'm I'm not supposed to ask about my money? Like, the money and the business, there should be no emotion with asking about it because it's business. There should be no fear. You should never be ashamed to ask for your change, ever, you know, or to scrutinize a bill. After my daughters were born, I shut down everything I was doing. I invested all my money into Rachel Roy, and then I just opened up art galleries where creative people could come and coexist and make things happen without compromising the quality of living. So I opened up DD172, which was a 10,000-square-foot gallery in the most expensive real estate in Manhattan, in Tribeca. And, you know, I had people like Mos Def and Jay Electronica and Wiz Khalifa and Currency, and it just goes on. Rock and Roll, the Black Keys, you know, the Holy Ghost, Erykah Badu, all performing. I had an internet television station called Creative Control. This was in 2009. We have chapters in our life. Yes. You know, the cool thing about the way I approach things is I always have like an ill bucket list, you know what I'm saying? And there'll be— there's a bunch of things that I want to do in my life, and eventually I know I'm gonna do it. So young, I wanted to hustle. I got that off my bucket list quick, you know what I'm saying? I wanted to be a music mogul, off my bucket list. I wanted to be a fashion mogul, off my bucket list. I wanted to sell oil, off my bucket list. I wanted to have art galleries, off my bucket list. And the things that were like on my bucket list were things like, I'd be like, even though you saw it in the book, one day I'm gonna do a diabetes network, I'm gonna do something that's just about diabetes. I did it. Yeah, it's off my bucket list. You understand what I'm saying? One of the things on my bucket list is to own a football team. One of my things on my bucket list is to have a network, you know, a real channel, to have a hotel. So there's always like a chapter of my life where I attack that bucket list. One of the things on our bucket list is to grow land, you understand what I'm saying? And to be able to have a, a farm. I was trying to grow cotton, make the clothes from the cotton, and be completely vertical. That's what we were trying to do in North Carolina.

Because you made it this far in a video, I want to celebrate you. Most people start and don't finish. Most people never actually follow through. Most people say they want something, but they don't ever do the work to actually get it. But you are different. You are special. Believe Nation, you made it here all the way to the end, and I love you. So as a special celebration, if you put a hashtag #believe down in the comments below on this video, I will showcase you and celebrate you somewhere on the screen in a future video because you are awesome. If you want to see the last one-on-one I did with Gary Vaynerchuk, check out the video right there next to me. I think you'll love it. Continue to believe, and I'll see you there.

I'm talking about something that the world thinks is a contradiction. I don't understand why anybody should ever verbally dress down an employee.