Privileges That Don't Feel Like Privileges

I wanted to stop recording. You know, I don't.

Because this one has the one that stays. Okay. I'll keep an eye on the red.

Yeah, I keep on the red. It's a red light.

Yeah, it's back there. Does it say recording? Yeah.

I'm gonna have y' all take it from the top just in case. All right. Okay. All good.

I want to welcome y' all to another episode of Fuck youk Money. Yes, indeed, Ty and yo. That's Ty, I'm Yo. And we here. Where we at, Ty?

Miami, baby.

Back in Miami again.

Yes.

It's gonna be like the Fuck youk Money headquarters.

Oh, no. Maybe. I love Miami.

Yeah, it's always been pretty good to us.

Yeah.

So we was discussing potential themes for this episode this week, and Ty had an interesting one.

Yeah, it's privileges that don't feel like privileges.

Can you explain that to us? Because it seems like an oxymoron.

Yeah, I mean, it kind of is. It's almost like if your uncle was like, Uncle Scrooge, right? Like. Like, you have this, like. I know my problem. My cousin probably feel like this because you may have, like, somebody that you. Cause y' all think we black, so. So, like, if you come up with somebody and they get on or they get hot or they get more resources or they. Whatever it is, they go to the league. Being around them, they got more resources than your typical family member. Right? But if they make you do, like, just extra shit just to be able to get access to the. It can feel like, man, it's a privilege. But, man, you be making me work out hard.

Right.

But in actuality, it builds character, Right?

It almost makes you second guess. Am I gonna ask them for this thing?

Yeah.

Cause it's not like they're gonna just hand it to me.

I'm telling you, man. I have seen this interview with Will and Jada Pickett's brother. He made this nigga do something. I can't remember what it was that basically trolled him, but I think it was just, like, making sure he did a bunch of. A lot of books that he gave him to read, and he had to read the books in order to be able to be on set or something. It was something wild. It was something that. It wasn't really wild, but it was just interesting to read. Oh, shit. You intentionally made him do extra shit just to be able to get on the set or do whatever you want to do, but you know what I mean? But you have recently came upon a privilege.

It is a privilege it took me about 10 years to get this privilege. It goes back to high school. I met one of my really good friends, and something that had been consistent throughout our whole friendship was that his dad worked at Delta, and he had promised his son that he was going to make sure he got him on to get a job for about 10 years. I seen my boy work every job but Delta. I was waiting for the Delta privilege to kick in. Like, when is it going to activate? About a year ago, it finally happened. He got on. My man got the job. And after 10 years of friendship, really good friendship, he was like, I want to bless you with my companion as my companion. Now, I didn't really know what that meant. Right. I just thought that meant I can go to the airport and fly anywhere, anytime. I think specifically anywhere in the United States you can fly free.

But it's like, food stamp buddy pass.

Yeah. I think if you gonna leave the country, you just gotta pay the taxes.

Yeah.

So that's what I knew. All right. So I thought, if I'm in the United States, I just gotta go to Delta.

They gonna hit me on a flight.

Like, this is my name. I know this my boy. I should be good to go, man. I tried that.

One day he put up at Air park his VIP line. Are you from the Magic. Hey. But I tell my father to come out again.

Yeah, he know the pilot. Like, come on. But when I say that lady looked at me crazy, trying to explain. I'm trying to explain to the lady at the front desk that I'm on this companion. Like, nah, I check my man's name. I'm not even in Atlanta. I'm in New York trying to get back to Atlanta. And this lady was like, holy shit. Why had to buy the ticket? Like, I had to, because there's a whole process I did not understand, bro. He has to do bro. I thought again, I thought I could just say my name at Delta, and I was gonna be on the flight, like, he has to go in. And it's a process. So after the failed attempt, I was like, let's figure this process out. So what I did not know about the buddy pass was priority and how once you go into the app to check in, you gotta check in with your priority. And because my boy just got hired, I am the lowest priority.

Oh, you're the bottom of the bottom.

Like, I think it's like S3B or so.

Yeah. So, you know, you can kind of like. I think the companion pass. I think you get like, 3s, 1s per year. And basically what a S1 is, it puts you at top of the list no matter what your. How long somebody else been saying there. Because everybody else is kind of like S3. S3B, none of that. So if you say, okay, can you make me a S1? It puts you at the top of the waiting list. It doesn't matter who how long somebody's been working. Now what changes is if somebody that has been working long. So I need to get up, can you make me an S1? And people usually use that so they can kind of almost guarantee they get on the flight.

Right.

And so that's something that helps with your priority.

If you didn't know that now you were S1.

No, no, everybody's a S2. S3 got you. But the S1 is what you can upgrade to. It's like a buddy, pass weight, wait list, nigga. Oh, great.

It's like a step up.

Yeah, definitely like a VIP thing.

So. But it's interesting, like, being the lowest priority and you're on standby. So if you don't know what standby is, everyone boards. And then it's about how many seats are left available. And I've done this enough times now where I've flown first class.

Yep.

I've been at the back of the plane. Oh, yeah, those apart recently, we went. My dad wanted to go to Virginia, so he bought a ticket. He bought a ticket for my aunt, but he was like, do you want to go? I was like, yeah. So they boarded before me. He had texted me, let me know when you get on the plane. I guess he assumed I was going to be behind him because they in comfort. Plus, like, he's like 15, I'm 12. I walk past him, I'm like, yeah, like, there's some benefits to this. We got on first, but I'm next to first class. I'm right there. So I've experienced, like, how this privilege is. It's a beautiful privilege. Right. I can't say I miss paying for flights.

I definitely don't miss paying for flight.

I don't miss it. But I also. I've slept in lax.

That's the privilege. It don't feel like a privilege.

No, sir, it did not. Not that day. I've been in the airport probably more hours than I've been in the places that I'm going at times. I want to ask you, I know at one point in time you've taken 100 flights a year, but how many hours do you think you spent in the airport, man?

How Many hours is in a year. So we know how many hours in a day.

Yeah, that's an excellent question.

That's 24 hours in a day. Then that is. That's 24 times five. Right? So, yeah, right. So you're about. It's about 8,760 hours in a year. Right. So when you do the math, Vanessa, show the math. I ain't no math magician like that. But it's pretty much 800. 7, 8, 700 hours in a year where I probably spent about a third, probably about 25% of that in the airport.

Wow.

I spent a lot of time in the airport. Missing flights, sleeping, overnight traveling, but missing flights. Yeah, scrambling, trying to figure out, okay, I take lay over here. I can get there. I can still get where I need to go. It's a whole little thing. And I. And I had access to the things so I can move faster versus you got a companion pass. You gotta call them. You gotta. Unless you just go to the counter, like, yo, can you move me this? Can you do that? And they can do it for you at the counter.

But it helps to kind of have access to that information because, again, it's about seating. So anytime where I feel like I've been delayed enough times, he'll hit me and be like, all right, are we going to come up with a new plan? So that means go here. It's got this many seats. I mean, even coming to Miami, flu companion. And I get to the airport for a 1:30 flight. But the flight has now been delayed until 3:30. So again, now the plane is full by the time all this stuff roll around. So now I'm in what I would consider, like, purgatory, where you were just rolling over and rolling over and rolling over. So I'll text him and be like, I didn't make it. I didn't make it. He was like, well, maybe we could do Fort Lauderdale.

Fort Lauderdale is a good apple, you know.

But I was like, ah, let me wait on one more. And I'm sitting here like, okay, they got 19 seats remaining. I'm number 23. All right, let me see if I will make it. Like, this is pretty much all yesterday, we just texting back and forth, trying to figure out, like, the math of this thing. And then there is a satisfaction when you do get on a flight that you just feeling like you barely made it. And then it's a blessing. You got a window seat. Cause you don't know, you might be sitting in the middle. You don't get a chance to pick your seat. You might be. Nah, you know what I'm saying?

Ain't no privileges with these privileges.

That's what I'm saying. Like some of the most things that people might overlook when you buy a flight, like getting your seat or picking where you like having that opportunity. It feels amazing when you don't have the opportunity. Next thing you know, you sitting in a position that oh, you got the exit row or maybe you in the emergency lane. Like there's so much that kind of happens that you don't have no more control over.

So from a learning experience lesson like principles and like characteristics and character building, what are you learning through this privilege that don't feel like a privilege.

Show up before time.

Timeliness.

You told me you need to be on that first flight. That first flight, say 6:30, you need to be there. Cause you told me most people miss that flight.

Oh yeah.

But I think that's like life too. Most people not gonna get up early.

If they ask, they'll book the flight, but they miss it 100%.

So there's been times where I'm like, the 9:30 flight's enough, right? It's not 6:30, it's 9:30. Then be the time I'd be in the airport for six hours. Because they don't miss the 9:30. Then they don't miss the 11:30, they don't miss the 2:30. Nah, now you've been there for six hours because you didn't make the 6:00am so not only timeliness but like very hyper specific about getting up early and being there first, showing up first. I also feel like I've learned a lot about people. That's all you do when you're in airports. People watch. So I kind of watch the way people kind of carry themselves. I watch the way people dress, I watch the way people. I see unprepared people. I know who has never been to the airport before. I know people that has like they show up. This is what they do. And it just kind of taught me about how you even showing up for anything. Like when you have experience, you got a different kind of preparation about yourself. You can move through some people like panic in the airport. Especially Atlanta. That is big.

Yeah. Atlanta.

Versus being able to maneuver that. I've seen you go to the airport like this shit's your house.

This shit definitely my house.

Ty walked through the airport like it's a welcome mat. But I've seen people like stumble and drip and lose things.

So this concept of. Cause you always thinking about Like, I know me and my experience in the airport flying Buddy Pass and standby, that I learned patience on a way deeper level. Because when I tell you when you standing at that thing and they're like, they done boarded everybody and they calling people, and if they ain't come, they gonna drop their seats. And you look and it's one seat left, but the people in front of you is a couple, and they gotta decide are they just gonna let that seat go or they gonna say, you know what? You jump on it, I'll catch the next one. Right, right. And I've seen both of them experiences. And to be sitting there and you just waiting, you just hoping that they wanna stay together and then they don't.

You're like, oh, right, right.

Don't, like, don't leave her. Don't leave her. I know I'm like, leave her. But it's one of those things where it taught me privilege and how such a really important benefit comes with ups and downs. Right? Money comes with ups and downs. Having successful parents comes with ups and downs. It literally taught me that privilege ain't really a privilege if you don't have the right perspective. You know what I'm saying? So, like, when we started talking about, like, on this episode, like, privileges that don't feel like privileges, you know, we might have a different perspective on rich kids.

Right?

Right. Because we looking at it as, like, your dad's rich.

Right.

You grew up rich.

Right.

They looking at it as, man, your life seem a lot more cooler than my life. Right?

Right.

And what it taught me about that experience with the buddy Pass was that, man, you can have a privilege and there are ups and downs to privileges. So this was even before having resources and being successful in business. I would be like, man, I get to fly free. Yeah. I might have to get to the airport at five o' clock in the morning. Yeah, I might around. Depending on how busy the airport is, I might be in that all day trying to get to LA so I can pursue my dream. Right. And we don't think about, like, how the privilege is tough because we've been deprived.

Right.

For so long and so many different elements. So we get a privilege. We can easily let us being deprived for so long have a negative connotation and a bad perspective on what that privilege actually is and can be for our lives. Right. You can be abusive of it. So you just think about the concept where it's like, you never had no money. Money come around or somebody around. You come around with money, you're more likely to abuse it because you don't realize that this is a privilege to even have this amount of money come through your hands. Right. And when you abuse it or you know, or people start taking advantage of you or trying to take advantage of you, you realize like, man, this privilege don't feel like no privilege no more. Because I thought having money was gonna make me happy, but now I ain't happy. I'm stressed out. Feel like niggas gonna rob me or try to take something from me, or this chick gonna try to trick me out or set me up. All the thoughts go through your head.

You don't know if people actually like you for you. You don't know why people treat you a certain kind of way. And to your point, it's the things we attach to these privileges, these expectations that we attach. Especially from the outside looking in, someone might assume someone with money just has it all, right? You can just do what you wanna do. You never gotta struggle. Like, how dare you complain about anything. You're rich.

Yeah.

You know, I feel like I've always seen that whenever something would happen with like celebrities. Yeah. And they were like going through something, people are like, why you crying? You're rich.

You're rich. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have this thing I'm working on within the company. It's like niggas being too free. And the concept of being too free is we grew up business wise, outside of the music business. Infrastructure still was a part of the music business because you're selling music. Right? Right. But now when structure comes in, people think that being an entrepreneur means that you can do whatever you want to do. People think being independent or being boutique, you can do whatever you want to do. You don't have to do it. Artists at the label do, right? Or artists that sign like, no, that ain't how this works. You gotta do what makes you successful. Rather you sign to a major label or you're doing it yourself. And it created this dynamic that I've been speaking about with my team. It's about like, let's not be too free. Cause motherfuckers, that's too free. Not disciplined. When you're not disciplined, you miss the mark. You know what I'm saying? You miss the mark on where you're supposed to be at what time you're supposed to be there, how many days you're supposed to be there, when, what you're supposed to bring when you arrive there. You know what I'm saying? You missed the mark on so many different places. So I think that in order to understand a concept like fuck you, money, you have to understand a concept like privileges that don't feel like privileges.

Because I think essentially privileges often feel like you're freer than someone that doesn't have privileges. But what you're pretty much saying is there's freedom. But, like, if you take that for granted, then that privilege is not really a privilege, or it's gonna backfire on you.

You know, you've had people that burn out where they. They get so much success, start doing more drugs, you know, they're speeding drunk, like all these different things where all of the privilege ends up being to their detriment. And I think that when we talk about what's the concept of, like, this sense of being well and having the ability to remove yourself from things that don't service you comes with a certain level of discipline and a perspective on whatever the privilege is that you have. Because if you have the privilege to remove yourself from something that don't serve you, there's a negative. There's something, a negative that's going to happen from that as well. You removing yourself from. And now you're more at peace. But you might have lost money, right? Because that where you was at was bringing in some money, but you was able financially to move away from it and not take a hit on your lifestyle or do take a hit on your lifestyle, but you're happier because you're not dealing with the bullshit.

You mentioned Will Smith earlier. Do you know what was going on before the Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

With him, I just knew it was rapping. Yeah.

Well, the second album, Grammy, won the first rap Grammy. Highly successful, sold very well. It got too successful as far as, like, mentally. So they decided to take the third album, and I think they went to, like, the Bahamas or something. And instead of recording, they just pretty much partied for, like, weeks. Like, they ended up having to call Will's dad because it got out of control. Cause they were like, we're artists. This is what's gonna inspire us. That album bombs. Not only does it bomb, they weren't careful with their money, so now they're broke.

Yep.

The album failed. You know, back in the 90s, you flopped. Your career's pretty much over.

You gonna drop your ass, you know what I'm saying?

Will was hanging out with the wrong people. So even, like, certain friend groups was going down and he felt like he did not know what to do. So he borrowed some money and went to la. Had a girlfriend out there and she pretty much encouraged him that he needed to get up and do something. Like, you gotta do something. She told him to go see the Arsenal hall show and just sit in the stands, right? And that's what they did for about 30 days. They went to Arsenal hall and just met people, just networked. He ended up meeting Benny Medina while he was out there, and Benny was the one that brought him on to Quincy Jones's birthday party, and that actually ended up making the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Once he gets on tv, he knows he does not have a second chance to fuck this up.

No, he don't.

You know, like, the, like, fucking up the music really taught him that you can squander the privilege. I mean, you got the awards, you got the name, you have all the things going for you. But they were too free when it came time to work on that next album, and they felt the effects of that. So by the time it's time for Fresh Prince, he's hyper focused and hyper assured that I'm not going to have that, like, backside again. And I remember reading that, really thinking about how artists sometimes can feel like, I'm so successful, there's no failure after this. I'm too high to fall. And they felt hard, man.

It's so crazy, right? Because I want to interview Benny Medina, right? Cause I know Benny and Benny, funniest shit. But when I first got introduced to Benny, I had no clue who he was. I ain't know nothing about no Fresh Person, Bel Air shit.

Oh, wow.

I ain't know about none of that shit, right? So one of my mentors, Cersei. Cersei know all the old niggas that's successful.

All the old.

All the niggas that's been around and been super successful. He knows them. He know of them, right? So I'm like, yo, you know this nigga named Benny? He was like, benny Madea? I like, yeah. He said, nigga, that's that motherfucking nigga. I like, for real. I like that nigga crazy. I fuck with him because when I first met him, he was, like, just getting off a call. And I haven't seen this type of.

Call.

Except for in the old record business, where you just see somebody, like, really, really sternly, like, give everybody hell on the call because they know what the fuck they talking about, and then get off the call and act like that motherfucking call didn't happen. And I was like, yo, this nigga crazy. I told him. I said, well, you crazy. You crazy as hell. Like, you that nigga that crazy. And we've been cool ever since I got asked for text him, but I didn't know about that. Or City o' hall story. Will Smith. That's crazy how life works.

And that's the first time he met him. He was like, I might have something for you. I'm gonna call you in a couple weeks. And Will. Cause I read this in Will's book. He said, in la, you hear that all the time. Oh, we gonna do lunch. I'm gonna call you in a couple weeks.

Niggas are definitely gaslighted.

But when it came back around, he was like, come to Quincy Jones birthday party. So he comes to Quincy Jones house, and Quincy's like, oh, it's the Fresh Prince. He tells him, we want you to audition tonight in front of all these people. This is Quincy's birthday. Will has never acted before. So Will's kind of like, I might need a minute. And he was like, come, come over here, Prince.

This is Quincy.

He pulled him to the side.

He called him the Prince, called Prince.

Come over here, Prince. So he's pretty much telling Quincy like, yo, can I get like a week? And Quincy's like, well, in a week, Justin over there, he's probably gonna have to reschedule. So he's like, oh, I get two weeks. I get an acting coach. I'll be ready. And Quincy's like, well, Sarah, probably gonna have to go to a birthday party. So he probably won't like, Will. It dawns on Will that he's like, if it doesn't happen tonight, it's not gonna happen. It's like, you gotta do this now. And I'll never forget this. Quincy tells him, you can't have paralysis through analysis. Oh, like, shit. Yeah. You know Quincy lives by that.

Quincy is that motherfucker.

You can't have paralysis through analysis. So it's like, the more you think about this, the less likely it is to happen. So you just gotta go out there and do it. He went out there and auditioned. And I think the speed in which Fresh Prince happened was because of that night. He knocked him dead. And Quincy just started pulling people. He was like, do you got a lawyer? That's your lawyer. You gotta, like, whatever you needed to get this show. Like the show Memo. Everything was built off of that audition that night in Quincy's house. Benny made the play for him. But like, yeah, like, I mean, man, Will Smith's book was pretty good. I read it this summer, and there's just certain tidbits that was the Thing that I really took away from it. But I love this part. So Will's like, all right, I get a second chance. Jazz, come to la. Come. Come do the show. Jazz is like, I don't really want to do tv because he spent his money building a studio in his mom's basement. So I got. I can make music in Philly. Will was like, our career's dead. Come do tv. He was like, okay, look, man, just do three episodes, and if you like it, we'll work on music in la. But, like, hey, I really need. It was so funny trying to watch someone else convince somebody else to do.

Something that everybody else can't even get. Opportunity to get.

But Will understood that Jazz was not there at Quincy's house. He did not see how all of this happened like this. He was like, bro, you gotta understand. LA plays happen at birthday parties, at dinners, at diners. Like, that is a shirt, nigga.

He was just like, LA plays happen at birthday parties.

So it's like, if you weren't. If he was there, maybe he would have understood the magic of that night. But just him not really seeing it, and I think about that sometimes is that Ty might have an experience, and you might understand something, and you might be trying to convince somebody else that wasn't there. So they might not see it the way you see it, but you, like, you might have saw a privilege, and you're like, hey, bro, come over here and do this. It's gonna work like that. You might be like, nah, Ty, that don't really make sense to me, man. I don't really know. They don't really sound like a privilege to me, but that was what I really got away from. That book is you can bounce back, but not everyone's gonna kind of see the money play until, you know, they show up. And Jazz ended up being one of the culturally relevant parts of that show.

Nah, it revamped. It definitely rebranded them in a different way for that duo. And that show went on, like, seven seasons.

Yeah, I think it's like six. I think it peaked at six.

That's crazy.

But, you know, and I just think that the privilege of even being able to go to, like, a show like Arsenio and just sit in the crowd and just network, right? And some people might be like, you just go in there every day. He's like, they did it for 30 days. They just went and sat in the crowd and met people, like, just even recognizing access like that.

This is a nigga that's famous. He don't.

Yeah, he's already famous.

He don't want a Grammy.

Yeah.

You know.

Yeah. He might records, you know what I'm saying? He might not have been up crazy in his career, his mind. Right.

You in la. So LA is a different type of famous. Yeah, yeah. You like, you know. Yeah. Like Tom Cruise and them type things in la. So you famous but you like a C. Exactly.

Right. Like this.

Yeah.

You just.

You're a rapper. Yeah. Like movie. You're a rapper. Like in the 80s.

Yeah.

Right. Or the 90s, whatever that shit was.

Hey, like I guess I never really thought about that. Like status wise. Yeah. Where you are on the totem pole. But you know, again, like once you do TV and then I think.

And this was before hip hop was popular.

Yes.

So, you know, this is rock, rock, road punk, all that shit out of there.

He wasn't even considered a top tier rapper as far as like being regarded and highly respected. Like he has some hits, but it felt like he was like bubblegum pop.

Yeah. I don't think Death Row was around. I think NWA was around.

All this is like developing at the same time that Fresh Prince is really not like working. And again, like their album flopped. So it's not. They're not even in conversations with like.

The Tupac, you know what I'm saying?

You're already kind of like aged out in. Or you've already kind of been passed over in a lot of ways. But again, being able to have that rebrand and jumping into like a new avenue with the. I'm not even saying they were certain it was going to work, but they needed something at a certain point because, you know, again, the privilege of just being an artist, they kind of squandered. So they had to regroup.

Had to repurpose.

Exactly. Had to repurpose. And with some discipline and intentions.

Like, I think it's important to speak on that. Right. For this episode to my privileges that don't feel like privileges, but repurposing talent, you know, to be able to access another layer of life so that you can go back as he still end up making music, you know what I'm saying? End up coming back making bigger hits. It probably was corny that people might see like, you know, some of these things was corny, but still was able to repurpose, come back, make bigger records, you know, and still keep growing as a TV star.

The Fresh Prince theme song.

Yep.

Think about it. That comes from being a music artist. The summertime record, like their biggest hit came after Fresh Prince has started 100%. They also say that once Fresh Prince kind of helped legitimize their finances, going back to make music without the pressure of the music, having to work the music, having to make money allowed them to kind of take the pressure off.

Yep.

Their comeback album was highly revered.

Yep.

And then it's like, again, that talent of having music in wheels, like back of his mind, Men in Black, like, it kind of kept reoccurring.

Yeah. That album, that first Men in Black album, that soundtrack did really well.

Incredible. Multi platinum. And again, this is all because they had a history of recording music, making music, and never quite lost that love. He just helped. He was able to apply it to a new field.

I think he's teased out, put out that soundtrack.

Yeah.

I think that was a Steve Stout record on Sony. Yeah. It's interesting because, like, this concept of repurposing, really being able to take advantage and leverage opportunities, I don't think people understand the impact of that. Right. What I've realized, and this is, this is a part of, like, fuck your money, where let's say that you want to be a journalist, but like a film producer. Opportunity just keep finding you and you don't do like Will Smith did and embrace it. You're like, man, I don't want to do this shit, man. I'm trying to be a journalist. Right. And you keep, like pushing that opportunity down. Right. I think the universe starts to push opportunities away from you as well, because it's a mirror. So there's artists who get opportunities early to do certain things and they think that, oh, man, I don't want to do this. This is where my heart is at. Right. But they don't realize that the universe is going to keep sending you opportunities because you keep taking opportunities. Right. And. And the more and more you take the opportunity serious, the more and more the universe see that you're serious about opportunities and then more serious opportunities come there.

Right.

And I don't think people understand the concept of if you are in love with this one thing so badly that you start turning down other opportunities that can actually help you grow financially as a person, whatever the case may be. Like, for instance, I never. I never imagined doing music ever. Growing up. It wasn't until getting into music. I stopped playing football. 2007. Right. So from basically 90. 7. 97 to 2007, I played football for. You know what I'm saying? So that's. Yeah. I mean, so that's literally like 10 years.

Yeah, not just 10 years, like 10, like formative years?

Yeah, like we're talking about like all, like pretty much all of middle school, all of high school, all of college and going into a professional aspect of it. Never thought about music to the point that in 2008 when I was like, man, I ain't playing football no more. 2007, I gotta figure this out, right? 2008, I got curious, started trying to look into like managing producers. By the summer of 2009, I was like, yo, no, no, no, not the summer 2009, probably the top of 2010. I hadn't got finessed a couple of times. Like this whole thing where I thought somebody was gonna hire me as an A and R, but they really just was fucking flexing. Then all of the turn, I was like, yo, these niggas is evil. They treating people rap, bro. I'm going back to sports. So that's when I started my management company based in branding and management, because it was going to be like a Sports Management Company. August 2010. So I was like, man, fuck this shit, I'm finna go back to sports. And the NFL lockout hit. The final season, the end of season 2010, NFL lockout hit. And it pushed me back to music. So that's how I end up stumbling upon Daddy Nino, AKA Forte Bowie. And then I started just working that. So that was 2011, working with Forte for a year. By the summer 2012, all gold, everything hit, then Trinidad hit. All these different things happened. Now it's 2023 from 2000. I'll just say 2010, I took a 13 year detour to get back to what I really love, which is sports. I don't really like music like that. I like the people that help people kind of like build a business around music. Cause I do enjoy building businesses, right? But that shit took me around the world to get here. Now being able to do sports and I can do it the way I think I want to do it today versus prematurely having to be like, yeah man, I'm a. I' ma just, you know what I'm saying? I ain't gonna be an agent because I don't got no degree yet. So I'm gonna go ahead and you know, just be a manager, help kids with a non profit, all these different type of shit. But now older, wiser, a little bit more paper and I can actually, you know, go and potentially be more successful in that because it's something that's been on my life for as long as I can remember.

Can you tell me why managing producers though? Was it like a Particular itch that you saw?

No, because at that time, record labels, records was selling. They wasn't selling no records. So everybody was like, if you want to make the money, the money, money. Money's in the copyrights, copyrights, copyrights. So I was like, well, shit, let me learn about copyrights. Let me learn about publishing. I ain't finna be goddamn going into the shit and trying to convince something I'm gonna stick with. They said, the money's in publishing. I'm gonna go to publishing. That's how I started learning about the music business, trying to learn about publishing, because that's what they said. That's where the money was.

The money was right, right, right. That's so why you came in with records weren't selling.

Yep.

But the idea of publishing was still like, there's money there.

1,000%. 1,000%.

Then you still was trying to do football, but then you got an NFL lockout. So that was like a block you just completely got, bro.

I was talking to all the big agents at the time. I was like, literally. I had a client with the Philadelphia Eagles named Trevor Lindley. I was working with him. I knew his brother from college. So that's how I got connected with it. It's crazy now that when you start thinking about how life works, that's why I'm saying privileges that don't feel like privileges. For instance, working in music in a position that. That I have, like, been blessed to be in don't always feel like a privilege, because you got to convince not to do that's gonna harm themselves. You gotta talk to, you know that only want to talk to you because of something that you're attached to, not because they're. They're genuinely trying to learn you or get to know you or build a genuine relationship with you. So, like, all of this shit be feeling like it's a privilege, but you don't know what's real, what's fake. You don't know who's genuine, who's really trying to, like, you know, be involved with what you're doing, your natural growth. So even working in music, being successful in an industry like music is a privilege. That don't feel like a privilege.

I don't know if it looks that way to people on the outside looking in.

Hell no.

Music is like the greatest privilege, like, to be in the entertainment industries.

Yeah. No, because I never known about. I never even was. Was understood anxiety until I started, like, really moving around deeper into the music business. I know about anxiety. When I was Playing sports the same way like that. Like, it's something. Like, it's things that you're aware of. Yeah, that. Like. Like all the hard drugs and shit like that. Like, when I be seeing black people do cocaine, I'd be like, that's crack. Ain't no mother cocaine. That's crack. You a crack baby. Like, because in my brain, that's what you. When you grow up and you see what crack did to black communities, right? You don't think about cocaine. You think about crack, right? Heads. I got uncles, and you know what I'm saying? Like, you see crack heads in south side, on the west side, west end, like, growing up in Atlanta. So I'm like, I'm not putting that in my body. It's a crackhead. But when you get into this business, you start seeing, like, all these different lifestyle choices that people make. You're like, this is. This is a very interesting thing. But once again, perspective, being able to take certain things away from it. Like with the Delta Buddy Pass, privilege, that don't feel like a privilege. You can pull the positives out of it. Or I can go take this meeting tomorrow if I need to. I can do all these different things. And you're looking at the glass that's half full.

Yep.

And not half empty. That's the approach that I had to take with the music business, where I'm like, you know what? I don't like none of this shit I'm gonna see. Can I build my own world in it? But right outside of it, where I could be able to say, nah, we don't really operate like that over here. Nah, we not gonna let nobody get taken advantage of. We're gonna turn a blind eye. That ain't what we're doing. We gonna make some people uncomfortable. And even then, it still feels like it's a privilege. That's not a privilege.

Can I ask you this? What is the biggest difference between athletes and artists?

The biggest difference between athletes and artists, in my opinion, is athletes work harder on their craft in a more disciplined manner, and they have to do the work for years before they can be privileged to make money off of it. A music artist can start making money off music when they 14 years old, 15 years old, they can sign a deal, they have a guardian and like that, but they can start making money. Athletes know that they have to go to the gym even if they don't feel good. Artists are like, I'm not inspired today. Right. They're not going to force themselves into the work their gym, right? Whether it's a studio or write music, athletes, musicians can do it longer. There's really no time, especially now, on how long they can like exploit their talent. But they still have just as big as audiences as each other. Just the artist is singular focus where the athlete is on a team or some level of a team, you know what I mean?

They can end up in the same arena. Essentially.

They do be in the same arena.

Yeah.

Same crowd, Madison Square Garden, drinking that bitch. Five dates. Yeah, the Knicks play there, the Lakers have played there. LeBron don't play there. Every legendary basketball player and or athlete, I mean a musician have played it.

Yeah. I can't cite the source, but I read recently that inspirations for amateurs, that the real professionals is showing up and doing it when you don't feel like doing it.

Yeah, 1,000%. 1,000%. It's a lot of shit I do as a, from a, from a business perspective that I be like, man, I don't want to do this shit. But I'm like, boy, I gotta go get some of this money though. And it's not always, always attached to money. For me it's about the access and the privilege to be in a very time sensitive opportunity. Experience. Right. Because you don't know when that opportunity is going to expire. So me, I'm like, I got to go, I got to go, I got to go. I got to get this. It's a window of opportunity. I don't know when it's going to. I don't know when it. I don't even know if it's doing this, but it's doing it. But I don't know how fast it's doing it.

I don't know. Because you're aware of time. It's not like time stops. No, I don't stop because if time stop, then there is no closure. But because time is ever moving, ever changing entity that we can't see, you don't know how long that. And it might be so narrow you can't even climb in it no more.

Listen, man, if you get an opportunity to have a privilege, figure out the pros and cons to your privileges, take full advantage of it, try to share it with as many people that you can, rather than sharing information or being able to share some level of the opportunity because you never know what the cutoff is on the privileges that you're gifted with. That's why it's called a privilege. You don't really work for it. You know what I'm saying? You didn't work. We didn't work for the right to have driver license. Somebody else did that shit, right? But we are able to benefit from the privilege of having the driver's license to be able to drive around in whatever car we want to get, to be able to get from point A to point B so that we can be successful or whatever we're trying to do. You know what I'm saying? So.

And they'll take that privilege away from you if you abuse.

Yeah, yeah.

I've never had my driver licensed, Knock on wood. I can't afford to use that thing. But I hear what you saying and it's. I think you're spot on. I think you're absolutely spot on. I mean, I think what Todd just said was just, I think we can kind of close it out.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, nope, fuck your money. We are super, super happy that people are tuning in to season two. Hope you enjoying season two. Every show we trying to talk about different topics in unique ways. Some of this shit might feel boring, but some of it, all of it is gonna be informative because we're gonna give you some of that fuck you money.

Come on out.

You know what I'm saying? And until next time.

Until next time.