Does Your Art Hold It's Value?

They have the same value as a 630 something catalog.

Yes.

You know what I'm saying? Like, what future would have to do to make the money of a masviat is make 50 hours.

Yeah, he has to. He has to, he has to. You know what I'm saying?

And we're back with another episode of fuck you, Money with Ty and Yo. I'm Yo. That's Ty.

Yep.

And we are in Miami.

In Miami.

And around this time of the year. It's beautiful, but it's definitely December. And December in Miami is Art Basel. And I think for me, when I was just a youth on. On the Internet, looking at what people were doing, that there's certain events that you kind of get accustomed to, like south by Southwest, Art Basel, that you're just like, man, it just seems like this time of the year, people migrate. Everyone from all over the world kind of migrated to a city for a celebration of art and film and music. But Art Basel was something that I always thought was so interesting. Do you remember the first time you really either was in Miami for Art Basel or heard about Art Basel? Like, what's your. What's your relationship with this time of.

The year, Art Art Basel? I can't remember the first really experience of Art Basel in like a conscious aspect of things. I'm pretty sure if I just sit and think, it probably would pop up, but. Or it's very well that I never had an Art Basel experience.

Really.

Being here before, out there for something completely different, doesn't feel like an Art Basel experience. I think my first Art Basel experience was probably when we did like the wellness event. But we did it pre Art Basel, kind of like a, you know, but we didn't do nothing else. We literally did that. And then I think I left.

Right.

And so I don't think I've had an Art Basel experience thus far through the whole, like, what it is, what it's grew into, what is, what it's grew to be, things of that nature. But it's pretty interesting because art, when you. When you think about art from a coming to life story as you as an individual, first form of art that you kind of think about at least me at crayons. Yeah. Like preschool drawing.

Right.

Coloring in the side of the line. So it's like coloring.

Right.

But I promise you, like, the. The translation of coloring does not translate to being a, you know, billion dollar industry.

Right. Right. Crayola doesn't make you feel like you about to be a billionaire. Yeah.

It's like it's not. It's not glamorized in that sense. Right. So you think about, you know, we. We black. So we were like Basquiat. But there's so many other painters, you know. I know the whole Ninja Turtles was based off painters, wasn't it?

Oh, yeah, yeah. Leonardo. Yeah. Don't. That's crazy you put it that way. Yeah, they really were like, absolutely.

So, like, it's very, you know, it's very Michelangelo.

That's crazy. I never thought about like that.

Like, it's very. Like, I learned about haters through Ninja Turtle. That's all random shit. That's very random.

Extremely random. I've never heard no one put it that way, but you're absolutely correct. Vy took me to the museum yesterday, right? So we're going to this museum. There's all of these paintings. And I had asked, I was like, well, what is a musician's museum?

Yeah.

Like, where do you go to see, like a musician's art display? Because when it comes to having your art in a museum, like you made it in some regard as a painter. Once your art goes from being a picture on the refrigerator of your mom's house to now being in the MoMA, you know what I'm saying? Like, all of a sudden, oh, my God, like, if people will look at that, consider you, you have made it. You can start selling paintings upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars for one piece of work. And obviously, you know, you making that kind of money off your art, you making some fuck you money. But it doesn't seem like that translates to a musician the same kind of way. Like, the value of one song is not the same way as the value of one painting.

So, you know what's so crazy is when you think, when you say musician, it is. I don't think the. I don't think the world sees rappers as musicians, Right. I think rappers are like the drug dealers of the music business. So they don't duck. So like, so it's like, like rappers are like street drug dealers and musicians are like doctors that prescribe.

Right, Right.

Pharmaceutical drugs.

You work in the medical field, right?

Yeah, sorry, this is medical field experts. We're rappers or drug dealers. Street pharmacists, basically. Drug dealers for the. For the industry. And the reason why I say that is because no musician wants to be called a rapper. You know what I'm saying? Like, if they really, you know, play an instrument or, you know, even though they write the music, you know, it's the difference between writing the music and humming and saying whatever comes off of your brain.

Right.

And saying it's a freestyle. I didn't. Whatever.

Right.

So I think that, like, when you think about art, I think people respect it from a value perspective because of how hard it is. I think people put value on art, and I think people put value on going to the museums and looking at a new artist and being like, this is incredible. You know, it's rare that I hear a new artist and I'd be like, oh, this is incredible.

Right? Yeah.

Or if I even see, you know, their art visually and feel moved.

The same way you will feel moved if you go to a museum and see, like, this giant portrait on a wall and it's full of colors, and you can kind of feel the imagination and the expression. You feel something. But if you go to somebody, especially.

If it's made out of coke can.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah. You could see it. You'd be like, oh, my God, I can't believe somebody thought of this. But I guess when it comes down to fuck you, money, you want to be able to use your imagination to make money, Right? Like, that's something that we value. But I don't know, like you said, rap doesn't get valued the same way as being a painter.

Can you imagine being on, like, can you imagine funk flex sitting with, like, whoever the hottest new painter is, like, yo, freestyle right now for us.

I got an easel.

I got paint. Bring that canvas out. Bring that canvas out. It's gonna be. He gonna freestyle the black canvas today.

Like, I'm sorry. They would walk out the interview if you pull out a canvas and tell me to freestyle on that. Paint, boy. Paint.

Yeah.

But again, a rapper could work on that album for two and a half years. Pour your soul into 22 songs. You go do a radio interview. They haven't heard the album, and then they ask you, like, all right, I'm.

Put a beat on.

Freestyle.

Freestyle for me.

And this is supposed to be. This is how you're supposed to respect yourself in freestyle.

Yeah. All of it is interesting. I think that, you know, I'm telling you, man, rappers are the getaway. Like drug dealers. That wasn't supposed to. You know, how you. It's like industries that you didn't really think gonna make, you know, that was gonna be impactful like that.

Yeah.

You know, like, when hip hop first started, you know, you still celebrating the 50 years of hip hop. They're like, you know, there's no way. It's not even original.

No Right. They're just sampling, they're just copying.

And I think that, like now when you said one painting can be worth a 600 song catalog, from a. From an artist perspective.

Right.

It's like nobody is paying, you know, $400,000 for a vinyl.

No.

Right. Nobody's paying $400,000 for one to attend one show. There's people that's not even paying $400,000 for, you know, certain people to sign a deal. No, like, I know like young thugs. When young thug first signed, he didn't sign for $400,000.

No, he did not. He actually had several bad deals before he ended up getting with 300. Because they didn't really value him like that.

No, no, no. So even when you get to a certain degree, Right. I know artists right now that are, you know, that would go to a festival and they still not getting paid $400,000 for one performance.

Right.

But we're talking about somebody bought something that don't move. Right. For $400,000.

Oh, my God.

Versus you have to go out. You got to spend about. If you serious, you got to spend like a month preparing for the festival.

Yep.

So you're going to spend the money.

Yeah. Just.

Just to do the performance. So your profit margin is not 400,000?

No, no, it's not.

So you think about a person that painted something, like, they might, I don't know, maybe they spent 10 racks for. For. For the. For the highest quality.

For the material.

Painting. Yeah, material. Best canvas, silk thread, whatever the it is.

Yeah.

And they've built up a repertoire. Mind you, when they painted it, it wasn't worth 400,000. No, it's worth 400,000. But then the flip side of it is this, though, what they sold it for is not what it's valued as. That's the one thing about being a painter that it does kind of like hold you. And I guess you could say the same thing for artists. Like artists performing today. Their performance grow value over time.

How it appreciates. Right.

And the artists grow value over time. They can't resell that same painting, but they can paint a new painting that can potentially be worth that same amount.

Right.

So I guess there's certain lines of it from that perspective in that aspect. Have you heard about this thing called Luna? Luna. What is called again? Luna. Luna. Yes. So it's this crazy story about this. Like, I think it was like an art museum that was like in like 1800s. So he. Perry is who created it. Can't remember with who else who Collaborates with somebody else. That's basically like an abandoned amusement park. Yeah.

An Amanda. I did hear something about this.

Yeah. So it was so. So it was created, and it was stored away in these shipping containers. It never opened. Right. So Drake, like, put up the money to buy them. They opened it up and it had, like, bunch of merchandise, and it had been stored away for a very long time. It's called Luna Luna. So their whole thing is that they're gonna, like, you know, aim to turn it into, like, this art exhibit that.

Moves around where you can go and experience it.

Yeah. So it's like, I don't know how much it was. I don't know how much it was paid for it. But just think about it. Like an artist creates something, stores it, Right. And I can't remember how far by the time it comes out, maybe I'm gonna look at this episode of BEI.

People Be Coming Back. But that's cool. It's cool that again, Keith Haring, also another famous artist, came in New York, kind of like the graffiti age. And for him to have stored away something that Drake can purchase, obviously, like, 25, almost, probably 30 years later, and is valuable now. Like, how. If you. If you. If you store something away right now, do you think it will be valuable in 25 years?

For me, yeah. Yeah, Like, I think it'll be valuable, but in different ways. I don't think it'd be as valuable as the art piece.

Right.

Like, let's say if I wrote a bunch of books that I didn't publish about the music business, like, different formatic aspects of it, and I didn't publish it, and I just stored it. Just nothing but manuscripts. Right. And you live a life and you become impactful in the field that you work in, I think it becomes more valuable then, versus if you never was impactful at all.

At all. Right?

So you just. A bunch of. You, like a nobody that nobody really know about that has a whole bunch of good shows, like, good, like, stories. Right. But I do think that everybody can create something impactful and they can leave. They can turn around and change somebody else lives.

Right?

So, like, if I was a painter and I was really serious about it and I was making a living off of it, that would be how I would leave out my. I would paint 10 paintings that I would specifically put in my children's name, and I would store them, or I would broker a deal with a famous museum that's like, hey, this is never gonna be sold. But I want you all to be the Owner of it. Almost like the Mona Lisa.

Right, right.

But this is for my heir. You know, they're gonna have a certain level of, you know, points or age or whatever, and it's gonna be owned by the foundation, but you all will be able to manage it and display it and make money off of, you know, off of it.

Right.

And I will broker some type of deal with the museum, you know, to be able to create cash that's donated to the foundation, to run the foundation for licensing and being able to hold.

I think that's very important to be thinking about currently. Right. Because I think a lot of artists don't think like that. Like, the value of their first, the value of your name. Your name's going to have value, and then what you're able to do with your name and the work you create underneath your name, how that can be valuable to your heirs. We're talking about Basquiat, obviously. Basquiat painted, like, hundreds of paintings. Right. But I don't think he knew about legacy because he was only 27 when he passed.

I mean, a lot of us don't know about legacy.

No.

You know what I'm saying? The only reason I'm speaking like this, because I've got enough. I've read enough mediums.

Yeah.

Explored enough mediums to like, oh, legacy. Oh, that. What does that mean? Oh, that. What happens when you're not here? You should try this.

You should think about that.

And then it comes into, like, oh, how do you create? Oh, you have to own. You have ownership, you know, because you own your name. Right?

Yeah.

So you can build, like, a legacy around your name, but your name still needs to have a certain level of attached to a piece of your reputation. Right. And so, you know, you can't leave your repertoire. I mean, I guess you can leave your reputation to your kids, maybe. Like, reputation of how your business is ran. There's always some level of. It feels like the United States of America or the world or the Just commerce made it so that you can't leave a legacy if you don't have business. Right. Like, if you don't have something that's an IP that can be commercialized.

Right.

I learned a new word.

You did?

Learned a new word. Securitize.

Securitize.

I was sitting with a financial guy, and they was talking and they were like, yeah, we securitized this person's Adidas deal. We are securitized this person's publishing catalog. And I was like, oh, okay, well, we talking. And I was like, well, what happens if you have an asset like music and it's valued at, let's say, $50 million, but that's how much it is. If you said a catalog today, right now. Right now, how do you go about, like, pulling equity out of that piece of that intangible copyright? And he said, oh, we just talked about it. It's called securitized. I said, oh. He was like, yeah. You pretty much take the asset and you write contracts and turn them into a security.

Right. Like a policy.

Like a. No, more so like a stock. Like, you know, security and trade, all those different things. So you turn that into pretty much a secured asset that you can lean against, that you can loan against, assets you can loan against. And they call that process securitized.

That's interesting.

Yeah. So you don't have to securitize something like a condo building because it's physical. Right. But anything that's, like, intangible. So, like, let's say if we get a deal for, you know, fuck you money that's worth a million dollars over three years. And that's on the paper that's writing it.

Yeah. Right.

We can go to them and say, hey, over three years, we're gonna make X amount of dollars. I guess they can securitize that contract and loan us money today against what that contract is gonna pay out over three years. Yeah. So very interesting aspect.

And that's so valuable to even know that you can do that.

Yeah. Because I'm pretty sure motherfuckers need security.

I mean, I saw a lot of artwork out there yesterday. And I wonder how many people understand the value of something intangible that you can, like, lean against.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm probably 20, 24, 20, 25. I'm gonna buy my first, like, real painting. Like, I bought a painting before from, like, this black woman. I need to check and see if she popped. Cause I bought it, like, maybe like four years ago. It's hanging up in my crib in la.

Cause I asked Vanessa, I was like, does Ty like art? Like, is he into purchasing art? And she was like, I don't think so.

Yeah, I think art is cool. I just never, like, I've seen, like. Oh, so it's another. It's funny that I'm saying this. So I had these three paintings created from this female artist in London. Her name's Cam. And she hand painted these three paintings of my grandparents. They gave one to my mom, one to my brother, and I have one. I gotta figure out where my painting at. Cause I was. My mom hung it up in her house. My brother got it hanging up in his house. Now I'm gonna hang mine up in the house in Atlanta when I finish it, but I gotta figure out where it's at. But it's probably at my brother's house somewhere, like, wrapped up or whatever the case may be. So that I bought a custom painting from another black woman in la. And it's like this painting of, like, these lips. It's like. But it has an appeal that is being taken and it has love on it.

That's one that's in your crib in la. I think I seen it. Yeah.

And then.

But you didn't purchase these thinking about, like, investment?

No, I was like. The first one, I was like, this is dope. I like the message, right? Like, love is a drug type of message. And then the second was just painting these gifts, this painting for my mom. It's funny, you know, them old. Those old, like, very. I can't think of the name of them, but there's like, these. There's like, these paintings of, like, royal figures. They have, like, the shoulder pads, these, like, really extravagant outfits on. One of our distribution partners got a painting like that with my face on it. So it's so hilarious. It's, like, wrapped up under my bed. I was like, yo, y' all out of control. But it's like this very royal.

Like, oh, no, I need to see it.

But it's like, on my face.

That's crazy hilarious.

It would be the most egotistical thing in the world for me to hang that up anywhere, in anything, anywhere that I dwell. That would literally have to be.

That's definitely not your. That's not your type.

That would be some shit that you would only see after I done died. They're like, what's in this wheel? It's this painting of, like. And I don't know who it might be a. It might be an incredible painter that's, like, did it that they hired. They might blow up in the future. But it's literally under my bed in one of these properties.

I think it's so funny that all these painters you just referenced, you don't know if they're blown up or not.

No, I don't.

You have no clue. But I mean, I guess for me, I remember Jay Z started rapping about buying art. And that felt like, oh, wow. Like, okay, this is a successful hip hop artist and he's investing in art, right? Then I remember hearing Drake rap about how I want art money like, what's art like? Art money. That's not like buying a car.

Listen, one of my mentors, Troy. Troy Carter, I went to his house. Like, the first time I went to his house, bro. His art. I was like. Cause his art is kind of like. It's decorated throughout his house. You know what I'm saying? So when you walk in somebody's house and they got these incredible art pieces of African figures and these different symbols, like, oh, this is crazy. So I know my first art piece would be for. Probably for the condo here. But the thing, like, I'm gonna figure out what I'm gonna buy that'll be, you know. Cause the way I. I love open, like, open concept, museum style, like, aspects. So, like, that's why I did, like, this custom rug that we got done. I can't even remember how much the rug cost. I don't think it was a very expensive thing. Because we wouldn't like scs. Okay? Scs.

That's what it's called.

But even the person that created that rug, I don't know who they might be.

Right. You have no idea how valuable it was gonna be. Yeah.

So. But it's just one of those things, like, oh, we wanted a custom rug that wasn't, like, shaped like a regular rug. You know what I'm saying? And that was like, the thought process of, like, that. But like, even the type of chairs that was selected, like, the type everything was selected was like, thinking about this might be in a museum. If you walk in, you'll feel like, I'm in a museum.

I'm in a museum.

Right.

So do you feel like right now the things that you're putting into your condo are things that will appreciate over time?

Appreciate from a standpoint of art? No, because I haven't bought any art.

Right, right.

But, like, maybe the rug. But, like, maybe the rug. You know what I'm saying? But I didn't buy any art. But I do think the actual improvements that I made are very artistic. Like, all of, like, everything. Cause when I think of art, I think of, like, sequences. I think of, like, silhouettes. I think of color tones and, like, how they blend. Right. So when I was thinking about, oh, the kitchen, like, I gotta get new countertops. Oh, the countertop. I want the countertop to be all white. Right. Then I want, you know, all of the door handles to be matte black. I want the toilet to be matte black. I want the handles in this to be matte black. I want all of the countertops in the House to match. I want the ceiling fans to match. I want everything to match. Oh, the cinder, the. The chandelier. Oh, it might be a little bit different than that. Oh, I want the balcony to have turf, like, so. And the color. The color schemes kind of sit on top of things that make it pop out. Right? And so I'm always. I've been. Always been, like, cheap. So people be like, literally, if you walk into the condo versus if you ever been anywhere, you've been to my crib, you've been to my la. But, like, if you walk into my condo, you'd be like, you ain't do this. Your girl did this. You know what I'm saying?

You wanna hear something funny? My niece is five now, right? So whenever I travel, if I stay in a hotel, she'd be like, show me the hotel. Right? And I'll show it to her. And she's like, okay, that's cute. When I was at your spot, she was like, where you staying at? I was like, oh, my boy's tired. She's like, let me see his spot. I showed her your spot. She was like, okay. You know, she was just like, oh, that's where you stay?

Yeah.

So I feel like I was gonna ask you this. As far as, like, being able to build, like, your dream spot or able to dream of how this place will look, how does that feel from, like, a fuck you, money perspective, knowing that you've been able to, like, save, been able to maintain, you've been patient, and now you're able to create the place that's, like, ideally how you imagine it. Like, you can decide what the doors look like, you can decide the countertops. Like, being able to have that type of freedom and flexibility.

I think that it made me really appreciate the apartment that I stayed in. The building that I stayed in for so long, I still have that same spot. You know what I'm saying? Like, I started in 2015. I had a studio apartment there that I paid ten, a thousand, fifty dollars a month.

Right.

So that was in 2015. A thousand. My bad.

One thousand. Yeah, I see the spot, bro. They went ten thousand.

Yeah. A thousand dollars, bro. Right, My bad. That was an error. We're gonna keep that in there too. But, yeah, it's a thousand dollars. Right. And so that was in 2015. So now in 2023, I have a one bedroom in that same building, and it's $1,800.

Okay. Right.

So that's a $800 difference over seven years period.

Seven years.

Right, Right. So you're talking about $100 a year.

It's like 100 increase, right.

$20, like $150 a year. Right. And so you're, you're. You're talking about, you know, the growth of, like that. So every hundred dollars that I spent additionally between the transition between a studio apartment to a one bedroom and to a one bedroom every year, not blowing money on cars, Rolexes, all those different things, it allowed me to have a certain level of. It's not like I saved up a whole bunch of money throughout that timeframe. What did happen is, mentally, I learned saving habits over that time frame. Got you, right? So you can learn a habit and be ready to put it into action versus. So what ended up happening is I was not spending money investing into the business, right? And then when I had enough money to not spend money investing into the business, then I had some, you know, surplus money. I already had a habit of, like, not splurging just because I see everybody.

Else doing it, reinvesting instead of splurging.

So with this particular place that is in Miami, it's really my first purchase under my personal name, something that wasn't under a business.

Right.

And so we as black people, when you tell somebody you moving into something, at least older black people, they're like, you know, I got this bedroom set that you want. Right? Right. I got a table. I was like, I'm straight.

I got some chairs.

Yeah.

I got. I got a couch.

Yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? This ain't that n. I'm straight. I don't want none of that.

Wow.

And so, so the process of, like, going through just knowing over the years of those habits that was developed, like, I don't. I don't even. I don't even have a car. I don't have a car. I have one car. You have one car, and that's like Chevrolet Stingray. Like that right Now I gotta get fixed. Cause it's old school. Car battery went dead. I'm like, why the battery went dead? I got fuel, New fuel injection put into it, but I'm barely traveling.

I was gonna say, I think I've seen you drive it one time, bro.

Like, literally, it takes so much time and focus to like, even sit down to make sure it's put together properly to drive. So, like, the more I fixed it, the more it broke. Like, from that perspective, right? Got new brake, whole new. So I'm bringing the car up to.

Yeah. Standards.

Standards, Right. So it has the, you know, I Went to anti lock brakes. Didn't have anti lock brakes on this. It was all original. So it's antilock brakes. Then the brake stuff looked weird. It felt real. So I had to take it back because it was like, it wasn't flushed. The brake lines wasn't flushed out right. So had to take that back. Then next thing, know how to get. Take out the carburetor. Get fuel injection. Yeah. Then with fuel injection, there's new device. It's all type of stuff. Right. So I'm like, this is crazy, but the point I'm making is I didn't really make any. I wasn't buying any jury. I wasn't buying like I didn't have a bunch of women that I was like taking care of. My mom and my brother are self sufficient. I didn't have a bunch of like, I don't have no kids. So like the habit that was formed over those seven years ended up being like, okay, cool, now I can get this spot in a very interesting part of Miami to save money. Because the state of Miami, you don't have to pay state taxes. So that's like. It wasn't just, not only I enjoy Miami, but it was a income, a long term tax scratch. Yeah, it was lucrative. Cause I'm going to the DMV on the 28th to officially change my residence from Georgia to Florida. And that's like another part of the habit because you're thinking about, all right, I have the means, I work remotely. Why am I paying state taxes when I can transition? Be here six months out of the year, meet the march that I need to meet to not pay state income taxes. And like really build out a very strong financial strategy for yourself. All of that started by being in a one bedroom for four years. I've been in a studio for four years. So from 2015. 2019. In 2019, I got the studio, the one bedroom.

Well, when we did Fuck youk Money, Not Fuck youk Money Culture Playbook, the first one, that interview, you had just updated your one bedroom. You had just went to the one bedroom.

Yeah.

Cause I think you were staying there when I came to the interview.

Yeah. When we did. For the book. Yeah, yeah. That was the feel that was in the.

I didn't know you just got that spot.

Yeah, yep, 1000% it was. We did that. Yeah. Cause we did. Fuck. We did the articles ten years after. Yep, yep. So that was like. I had just got it. My cousin was staying with me. Yeah.

Mikayla was actually there.

Yeah, yeah. So like the Thought process of these habits, man. That's what. That's what all of this is about, right? We think about this show, we think about the book. We think about, like, you know, when we're meeting with people, we think about strategies. Like, even when you think about how art is designed, how, like, we don't know how many pieces that was created that was thrown away or that was discarded before we see the final.

Exactly.

You know what I'm saying? Like, all of these things that are successful or that has value, somebody or whoever was creating it, they created these through habits.

Through habits, right. Through habits, yeah.

So art form is created through habits. Habits that you have consciously, unconsciously, right? So now I don't consider myself, like, I'm an artist from that aspect, but I have taste. You know what I'm saying? I have taste. I understand how I want to look. I understand all these different elements of it. But I never had an opportunity to display it myself until this particular condo, right? Because now I've, like, spent so many years focusing on other things, and this piece of this investment is almost like a form of fuck you, money. So, like, as I, you know, pay it off or whatever the thought process is, that's something that I can have if I decide, like, oh, I know I ain't gonna be homeless if I decide to step away from these different things, right?

And so not only once you be homeless, but you be living in the home you wanted, like, the way you imagined it. It's a bit of like, it's your spot. It's ty's spot.

Yeah, 1,000%. So it's been a very tedious process because the habits that you form create a certain king to details. So I've been going back and forth like, yo, this corner, this ain't finished. It's messy, you know, to the contractors or whatever the case may be. But in that whole experience, it does feel good to know, like, oh, I seen this thing. Somebody pointed it out, like. Cause, you know, it's when you have about. The thing about taste is not always about, like, you finding it. It's about you giving options and you picking, picking, picking out the options that you're giving, right? So being an A and R or finding talent does not always mean that you actually found the talent that you heard multiple people rapping or singing or dancing or painting. You're like, you got something. I like that.

Right? You're drawn to it.

That's when the taste really elevates. And that's where you see the difference between somebody that can just find a whole bunch of talented people versus somebody that can identify somebody has potential to be successful with that talent. So me some of the things is like, I was like, no, I want this. I want conceptually, I want this to feel like a museum. I want the view to be that. So I want the sofa to be curved. So when you sit in the sofa, you can see the view, but you also can look and see the projector. I don't want no TV on the wall because it's gonna mess up the value of this. I don't want it to look a certain way. So this is gonna be here, this is gonna be here. And this is gonna have a projector. All these different elements. Right. So the thinking of it, like, I want the oldest countertop. I don't want. These are the different materials. Give me this material. Even to the point where after you pick it, you're like this so clean. How I'm gonna keep it clean? Cause you're not thinking about the. You're not thinking about the upkeep or cleanliness. You're only thinking about like the taste. Similar. When you're picking out artists.

Yeah.

You picking out artists based on what you hear. You see, you don't know if that motherfucker crazy.

No. Right.

I should have known it. Cause I seen he was drinking. Yeah. When I seen the N Rap. When I seen him writing the music, he had like two bottles of Henny. He done went through. You was so focused on how.

On the output of the music, not the actual like lifestyle that the person's living to actually make the music 1000%. I want to take a step, a quick step back. You were saying you were saving or building your saving habits while you were watching other people kind of spend.

Yeah.

How hard was that to like not feel? I mean, obviously you're a grown man, so you have your own sense of purpose. But did you just think like, man, maybe you want something because you've seen other people have it?

We 1000% that's why it's inhumane for us to interact with so many people. Because we're gonna have a natural tendency to see what somebody else has and want it. Right. It's the human way. That's how we evolve. So you waking up on social media and you seeing as a woman, you seeing this woman have a better face than you in your. In the world's opinion, it might not even be true.

Right. But the likes, the comments let you know.

Cuz all you see is that this face is always on Vacation. This face seem like they always in a nice car. Yeah. This face might be the reason why you're so if I can get a face like this, maybe I can get. Or if I can get a body like this, right? Or if I get. Or from a man's perspective or if I can get a six pack like this, or if I can get a, a watch like this, like that, right? So that's why we're not supposed to see all this stuff. That's why you get the most results when you take yourself away from all of the distractions and focus on your human ability to create and imagination to create like the most outrageous ideas and concepts and theories and strategies. You get the most of that when you block yourself away from seeing all the other human activities, right? That's how you develop taste, that's how you develop like your, your, your, your, your identity, right? And so when you come out of it, you know, your uncut, your unconscious mind have already observed and observed and observed, you know, observed all of these different aspects of it, right? So you observe it then you observe it, you know what I'm saying? All these things, you observe it. I got you. So it's almost like a tongue twister where you're trying to actually articulate it, right? But your unconscious mind have already done it every single day, right? So when you saying, I'm gonna block everything out for the next 45 days and I'm finna write this new book or I'm gonna block everything out for these next four to five days and I'm gonna write this new song. Your mind unconsciously have processed every single thing you've intaked over the last past however many times a time period before you took that 45 day reset from like looking at what other people are doing.

Because now you get to focus on that thing.

Now you can focus on that thing.

Because I feel like when you were working on something and let's say every time, let's say, oh, I'm working on this for like an hour, then you spend five hours online. You might feel like the hour you spend that thing you're working on isn't valuable because it doesn't look like what you just saw online.

Exactly.

Or it doesn't like what people are commenting on. Or maybe I need to change what I'm doing because this is my. Oh, the thing I'm working on is not going to go viral because it doesn't, it doesn't feel like that you'll spend all that, you'll never finish it.

No, you'll never finish it. Always be checking your work against somebody else. Yeah, right. The, the, the, the thought process of frustration to create innovation. It happens because you fix, you was fixated on one problem. If you're exposed to problems daily, you know what I'm saying? Like, you think about the Wright brothers. There was some fixation and frustration that they couldn't get somewhere faster. Right. It's like, I need to fly, I gotta get like. Or you think about, you know, Henry Ford, like all these different individuals that was innovative, you know, Steve Jobs, personalization of the computers, all of these things. It was a frustration over one single problem.

Yeah.

That's why inventors, you know, the research says that today is less inventors today than it was in the past. There's too many problems to solve. So people can't just focus on one thing. There's too many problems to solve 100%. And it's not that they can't focus on one thing. It's just always a problem being solved. Right? So like solution that's like, ah, what about this, what about that? But before social media, before having so much exposure to there's so many issues, right. You can just deal with your day to day.

That's it.

Like your hair's always, I just need to get something to make my hair straight.

Right.

You know what I'm saying?

Right. You're just trying to fix your own personal problems.

Yes.

You know, and you might produce and invent something. But man, you, you reminded me of this artist I really liked named John William Goddard. And he was doing like very classical Renaissance paintings around the same time as Picasso. And Picasso started doing like the more cubist style paintings. He changed the way people were viewing paintings, right? So the artist that was doing more classical stuff, he's looking at Picasso, he's like, look, he didn't change the way people painting. Ty Bro took his life. His suicide note said, the world's not big enough for me and Picasso.

What?

I'm so serious. And when I read that, I always thought that that was the craziest thing I've ever heard. But I, I related to him because he's like, he's not focusing on just himself. He's so focused on what someone else is doing that he literally feels like the world's not big enough for the both of us. He's like, I gotta go.

That's why that's crazy. I've heard this story before, but I didn't realize it just now. Hip, I guess because we're talking about art that he was pretty dedicated to, like, being unique.

Yes, yes.

100%. 100%. He said, I gotta go because, yo, can you imagine?

This is not fun.

Can you imagine?

It's not funny.

No, it's definitely not funny.

But I think about it like that.

But I'm gonna make it funny. Yeah. Can you imagine if athletes thought like that or if. Could you imagine Jordan was like, I can't be here. Colby is here.

That's what I'm saying, right? No, no. But, like, people will feel that way. They will feel. Or some people just quit. Like, I'm not gonna paint because this person's painting. He's famous. People love him. I'm not gonna paint or I see Jordan. I'm not gonna hoop. Right? And I.

That, yes. Like, you know what? That man too good. I'm not even gonna go. I'm gonna find something else that I'm good at.

But some people can't think like that, man. Like, it's. It's that intense. And I think we live in a time, intense time. I think things are very intense right now. And I think it's because people aren't focusing just on themselves and, like, creating. Like, I really. I really believe in what you're saying as far as, like, building the habits. Because once you build the habits, obviously you're gonna course correct based on what frustrates you based on the habits you're building.

So. Vanessa, can you bring me my phone real quick? I want to play. I want to play this clip from Instagram of Michael Jackson performing, right? This is this when I tell you I was listening to these lyrics, right? And I was like, I don't even know if we'll be able to really hit the lyrics on this. But this. This was so, like, moving. I sent it to other artists, right? You can feel them too.

Let me say.

What about elephants? Have they lost their trust? Crying, the crying whales. But look him, bro.

Watch.

Watch this. This.

I'm sorry. That is dangerous. This is so dangerous. And he's doing this singing, And that feels.

Bro, hold on.

Go ahead. And you saw that just scrolling.

I saw this in scrolling when I saw this. I'm gonna tell you the date that I saw this. I saw this on November 7th. I did not listen to music for at least until Drake. I think I listened to a few records off of Drake's delivery. Scary. I didn't listen to music, bro. I was just like, I don't wanna hear this shit. They talking about. This nigga's talking about the elephants.

And the whales crying, whales crying.

And mother's nature is all, woo. Like, I didn't even. I didn't even want to listen to music no more, bro. I didn't want to go to Nobody concert. This right here made me realize that. So I always tell my team, I'm like, man, y' all love this music shit too much. I don't love this shit like this. Y' all get blind because you love it so much. I'm very clear on what it is, right? This made me realize that I love art. I just don't like the music business because I'm very clear that the music business is not genuine. Because business is not. Business wasn't designed to be genuine. Business was designed to be transactional. So when you put transactional things inside of a genuine space, it changes the motives for the people that's making it, that's receiving it, all of those different things, right? And at that time when this was created, Michael Jackson was the highest paid, one of the highest paid artists. The highest paid artist today don't make music like this. When the highest paid artists or the highest paid musicians don't make art like this. That's why we don't have good music. That's why you can't find out one artist musician today that is performing like that and that's actually writing lyrics that are worldly, impactful. Because at that time when this was probably recorded, he was probably the most valuable artist from a financial what people was willing to see. He did not have to say that.

He didn't have to say any of that. No.

That dictates that resets the artistic market. So everybody's like, oh, I gotta be like this nigga here, right? But like now, today, people are looking up at, you know, whatever the artist is that's getting a whole bunch of money that people are looking at and they're seeing, you know, that's the standard. I'm gonna shoot to the standard because once again, we're humans, right? We're only trying to outdo the things that we see, right?

Versus him.

Telling you, you're talking about Stevie Wonder, you're talking about all the niggas that was coming up around that this n came like so many impactful artists during that run that Michael Jackson had. And this is because when you see the most highest paid art piece look like that. Yeah, you trying to be that.

Yeah.

You're not trying to be Milli Vanilli.

That felt like watching a painting move.

Yes, that might be definitely. Yeah, that was definitely watching A painting. But I feel you. I feel you.

Because Michael, sometimes I really try to figure out what Michael Jackson did to the world, what he did to the work. Like, I remember just being in an Uber in Chicago and the. The guy was telling me how his kid, who is six years old, favorite artist is Michael Jackson.

He said, bro, I was in North Hollywood. I don't know how it popped up on my phone. Yeah, Michael Jackson had me in a chokehold on my phone for two hours watching him perform at the Wembley Stadium in London. He did seven nights. Yeah, like 80,000 people. It was like 60 to 80,000 people for seven nights in a row. And I'm on my phone in my bed like this, on this limited high school for two hours just looking at Michael Jackson perform. I think that was the bad era.

Yeah, yeah.

This shit was incredible, bro. Like, I don't even look at, like, I don't. I don't like nothing. Yeah, yeah.

I don't like nothing.

I don't like nothing. The only thing that caught my eye a lot from a live performance, that I was like, oh, snap. I was looking at Doja Cat performance recently. I was looking at Doja Cat performance.

I heard New York show was crazy.

And I was like, oh, man. And I caught it on, on like social media style. Like, man, this is out, man. She's going to crazy. But like me outside of like Beyonce, Usher.

Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? But.

But to be moved like that, for someone to be on stage and move.

You like that almost on my phone for two hours.

Yes, two hours.

It's crazy. Two hours almost.

That's crazy. That's crazy.

That like, that like, yeah.

This is not like in a movie theater where you're surround sound, you got popcorn, you just on your phone watching Michael Jackson it. Yeah, man, but like you said, like, when the highest. And again, he was the highest paid artist selling the most albums, had the. And had the career to let you know, like, man, if I'm dedicated, if I'm disciplined, if I do all the things that Michael's doing, then maybe I have like some real power. Like, real power.

And I will say the reason why, when I was first starting in the music business, when people would be like, I want to be like Michael Jackson. I'd be like, hell yeah. Like, let's be like Michael Jackson. Because at that time I just seen Michael Jackson as. That's when you aspire to be the pinnacle right now, today, when somebody talking about they would've been like Michael Jackson. I started laughing at him. Cause I'm like, did you start performing at five? You just started performing at five. Where you're a Joe Jackson. You gotta have somebody that's a Joe Jackson. You gotta have a Jackson 5.

Yes. You gotta be in the group.

Like, I wanna hear that shit and then pick somebody else.

Then you gotta be dedicated enough to leave the group and still thrive to be.

You had have been set up to be my. You had to be performing at 5. Yeah. By the time he was 17, they had a residency at Vegas as a family. When he was 17, Janet Jackson was performing in Vegas at their residency when she was like seven. Every day. They was performing seven days a week. Seven days a week, bro.

It's very hard to even aspire.

You can't be fucking Michael Jackson. Be future. Okay? Maybe. You know what I'm saying? You're not gonna be my fucking Michael Jackson. You like, like you just not. You're not gonna be Michael Jackson. You goddamn might not be Beyonce. Cause once again, she started so young with a band. You can't be Michael Jackson. Jackson huge. Yeah.

Just like incredible.

Destiny Childs was huge.

Yeah. And now gonna be my big ass group like that.

You might.

You might can be Usher.

Usher was signed to a record label for 30 years. The nigga about to fucking perform at the Super Bowl.

Yeah, but when he performed, he was like 13.

Yes. He signed a record in at 13. Usher now is an independent artist. At 44, he was signed to a record name for 30 years. That's crazy. There's a. There's a clip. There is a clip of young Usher talking to somebody and they was like, oh, my God, whatever you do, don't do a Vegas residency. Usher said, I can't promise you that. He said, but if I do do a Vegas residency, it's going to be the most incredible thing you've ever seen. This is young Usher. He had to be like in his 20s.

Yeah.

And the guy was like clowning the Vegas residencies. But you want to know who was doing Vegas residencies at 17?

That's what I'm saying.

The Jackson Five. See, Joe Jackson had them motherfuckers doing the Vegas residency. It was 5, 12, 14, 17, 24. They were doing the Vegas residency way before you was washed.

Yeah, way before. Yeah, yeah, right. Like it's kind of considered what you do when you're on the decline.

This man Usher told some guy, and I wish I had the clip, I seen it on Instagram, that if I ever do do a Vegas residency, it's gonna be the most beautiful thing you've ever seen. That nigga wasn't lying. That shit.

He wasn't. So you saw it five times. You saw it five times.

I seen Usher perform in Vegas five times. I've never watched any artist perform for five times. Look, we're gonna play this clip, then we're gonna close out.

Yeah, This is 2004 BBC, right?

I just got out of high school.

Bros. And then you went and saw that.

That was 18 years. That was 19 years ago.

Yeah, 19 years ago. Yeah.

This man has last 19 years. 2004, confession comes out. 2008.

No, no, no, no. Confessions was like 2005, bro.

That's confession, Usher.

Yeah, yeah. No, he's high. He's high.

That's high. He's confession, Usher.

He's high, bro.

When I tell you that shit, like. So I've. I came across that interview. Yeah, I came across this Michael Jackson clip. Yeah, I came across Michael Jackson performing, bro. Have you ever seen James Brown perform?

No. No, I haven't watched it. I haven't watched it.

You gotta find a James Brown. Go on YouTube. Click on any James Brown. When they say that nigga was the hardest working man to showbiz.

Yeah, he was.

You could tell by the nigga. He's sweat. He's drenched in sweat, dancing like a man. Like, for a look. Oh, yeah. I really just don't like today. I don't love today's art. I think that's what it is when I'm like, I don't like. I don't like this music shit.

Now, I'll say this. I did. Now, I just saw a clip the other day about why Michael Jackson and Prince kind of had, like, a heated rivalry. Did you see that? Honest.

But I do know that they had a he.

How they. They say that the crux of what happened was that Michael was at a James Brown concert. And James Brown called Michael on stage and he hit, like, a little high note, right? And then Michael told James Brown that Prince was in the stands, right? And asked Prince to come up. Prince comes up on his bodyguard shoulders. Him up body guy shoulders. But people said, I guess Prince was either smoking or drinking or something, and that Prince had a terrible performance that, like, he just got on stage and tried to, like, do a little something. And they said it was so bad and that Prince was so bad that he tried to hit Michael with his car when leaving. They were dead serious. Dead serious. They was like, yo, he tried to hit Michael with this car.

So that translated today is basically like, Gucci and Jeezy.

Yeah.

100%. 1%. They're just too violent. You can't even have real beef. It's like, right? It's like ushering Chris Brown some shit. Like 100% Beyonce. Like, you understood me.

And that's why they were like. But I think what this says is that Michael Jackson was at that time always ready.

He was always ready to. Prince is really a nigga.

Yeah.

From the stories you heard about Prince, Prince was really a nigga. Like the fact that Prince tried to hit Michael Jackson. Why is he driving? First of all, why is Prince. Prince knew that Michael was coming.

Look it up.

He like, I'mma do the crowd myself. Look it up. Can you imagine how time would change? Know what? That probably need to be a movie. Yeah. What if it's a movie that basically says it shows like these different aspects of like, maybe it's like this weird black mirrors where it's like a movie where it's like a 1010 series where how history would have changed if Prince killed Michael Jackson when he tried to hit him with a car. And like, who would have become. Who would have took a ride?

No. Out of that.

Right?

100%. But again, and I think Prince was obviously incredible and obviously I think that was a pivotal moment for him to always be ready.

Super bowl performance in Miami in the rain. Incredible.

Right, Right, Right. Now, again, Prince was a performer. He just had an off night. But just imagine feeling like, I hate this nigga. Like, I hate this nigga.

Did you hear the story, did you hear the story about when Prince was performing and Michael Jackson was in the stands at one of his shows?

No.

And he just kept playing the guitar and he was like gyrating, pointing at Michael Jackson with the guitar like that nigga is. They was really trolling each other.

That's competition. That's competition. Like, how. How else can you rise up without seeing somebody and be like, I want to be better than. I got to be better than. And even if the competition is just internal, I think, I think it helps. I think it's healthy. I think healthy competition don't hit nobody with your car. But like, you should want to feel like, oh, I got upstage tonight. It won't happen again.

Right?

It won't happen again. I think Prince really took that and internalized it because I heard about that ping pong match where like they had Michael Jackson and Prince was somewhere at some studio playing ping pong together. And I think Prince, like tried to hit him in the face with the ball. Like it was serious.

Then Michael Jackson must beat him in ping pong too.

Nah, I think Prince had a. I think that's what he got his lick back.

Yo, the crazy thing about this is I don't think artists today really, really do see like Kendrick and be like, I'm finna try to outdo this, man. Yeah, I think it's very rare that see the highest level being done and they just. I think they just give up. I don't think that they like drive to try to. They can't. Like they can't hear.

It feels impossible. It feels like they're so high up that like, it'd be nice to get a follow by Kendrick.

Did you see Melodic Blue?

The movie or the performance? No, I haven't. That's the one they did on. In Paris, right?

No, on Amazon. Yeah, the, the, the.

The.

The short film. Oh, it's like 19.

No, no, I haven't seen it.

Yeah, bruh, we might around and have a whole episode about.

Yeah, is that good, bro?

Look at it, bro.

Okay.

Mind you now, Melanie Blue, the album dropped September 2021. Yeah.

I'm so surprised they dropped this now.

This just dropped today, bro. Yeah, I was laughing because I was just like, these niggas so fire. Oh my God, they so fire. And it's funny because it's like niggas convince Amazon to get them a whole bunch of money to shoot this incredible documentary slash music video.

Yeah, it's like a big music video.

It's almost like, you know that baby Keem finna start his new rollout roll out. Because this, this was definitely a punctuation of that two year roll. Like that's crazy. Yeah, bro, when I tell you I'm watching it today, you gotta watch this. I'm not even gonna talk about it. We probably gotta do a whole shit about it.

We'll come back to that. Okay, one more question. Do you think baby Keem as like Kendrick's actual cousin benefits from seeing his cousin up close and being like, I don't wanna necessarily say he wants to be better than Kendrick, but it feels like I can be Keem go where Kendrick wins.

Keem is definitely trying to be better than Kendrick. Yeah, he's definitely trying to be better than Kendrick. They're on the stage. Yeah. Like, you can't. You cannot. He's definitely trying to be better than Kendrick and Kendrick is making sure Kendrick is like, you ain't gonna be better than me. N like, he's definitely trying to be better than Kendrick. It ain't no, you can see when you see them perform.

Yeah.

Like, he. But it's just a certain respect because, like, yo, this is my cousin Boom Boom. But he's definitely trying to be better.

But does he feel like he can be better? Cause he can see it up close.

I think he do feel like he can be better because it's like he's getting the knowledge and you're getting the information, all these different aspects of it. Cause they know he's younger. He probably has brain. When you get older, you got kids, it's hard to stay young.

And you probably looking at like, I'm gonna take this old man. He.

And he has the same team that Kendrick has. So he's like, if I got the same team. Yeah, I'm always around it.

Yeah.

That's why you see all these younger artists, they're not taking the same trajectory and route that Baby Keem is. The niggas that came up. That came up with Baby Keem.

Yeah.

The only nigga that's like, giving Baby Keem, like, a more like, wave than he had. It was like, the record that. And this is me not being biased. Like, the record that he did with Brent. Brent was the only one that made. Only feature that Baby Keem had where people took that song and made it a Brent song through TikTok throughout he was starting. They now renamed the song to 16 missed calls. All those different things. But Baby Keem waved his visual representation. Baby Keem is basically Travis Scott, but he's talking about more things that you can actually relate to.

You can feel. Absolutely.

But his visual representation.

Yeah.

But when you see that melodic.

I'm gonna watch it.

That's it. All right, we can end on that. Shout out to Dave. Shout out to the Baby King. Shout out to K Dot. Them boys are solid humans.

The you Money Art Basel special. We talked about a lot of things today. Hope you guys enjoy. We will be back.

Oh. Shout out Chubb. Shout out Drake.

Yeah.

Shout out Ebbs. You know, Shout out J. Cole.

Yep. Eve. Eve.

Shout out Eve. Okay, somebody shout out Eve. Cause they. It feels like they are serious about trying to elevate every single time. You know what I'm saying? J. Cole wasn't doing features until he realized these. Think I'm. I'm not it.

He ain't. He ain't miss one. He ain't missed a single one.

That's all good. All good.

It's this.

That we did. No, no, no. It's all good. We good.

We'll have a disclaimer camera said it was okay. Camera. Camera. End.