Ty Bazdin talks about letting loose and reclaiming joy once you have fuck you money. He reflects on a severe COVID illness that reset his priorities, lessons from retail jobs at Target and Olive Garden, and how wealth requires fighting against predatory music industry contracts and systemic barriers.
Chapters
I'm not over it. I'm just getting started. Well, we're back with breaking news. You money.
Yeah.
Breaking news, you know. Yo, I'm here with Ty, and we are. Fuck you, money. This is an interesting setup we have today, Ty.
Yep. Which is costume change.
Yeah. I feel like we on espn.
Yeah.
First take.
Yeah.
Stephen A. Smith.
Yeah. Nigga. Yo, nigga in.
Nigga in.
Yeah.
You ever thought about being on tv, like, growing up?
Nope. Nah. Except for playing football. Yeah. The whole time I thought about being on tv.
Okay. You saw yourself on Sports Center.
Yeah, Football with a hip on.
Yeah. Well, I mean, there's like post game interviews. There's all that type of shit, forms of dialect that you have on television. So got this nice set. Got me thinking, if Fuck you, Money was a TV show, what would tonight episode be about?
Tonight's episode will be about letting loose.
Letting loose?
Yeah, Let him loose. I was. I was at dinner with my girlfriend, and we was eavesdropping on this couple that was dating. But we would assume they was dating because he was selling himself. Like, he was talking about how he was at A1. He was at this one company, and they raised a lot of money. And I didn't catch the ease part of that drop.
Okay.
But then I caught when he was like. And now I'm like this executive and I'm climbing up the ladder and I want to get to the point where I can start to let loose.
Okay.
And we was talking about money and all these different things. So in that conversation, I was like, man, let loose. Feels like it's something that you can do to be able to create more opportunity for people around you, you know, loosen up the scrap a little bit so that you can take more risk through your business. Now, I don't know if that's what he actually meant. He might have been trying to sell her on. Like, he ain't gonna be working all the time. He gonna let loose. But that's how that process came to me. So I was like, we're gonna discuss let loose today and how that is essential for Fuck youk Money.
When you mentioned it in the car, my mind first went to people who let loose get terminated. I've never had the experience of someone explaining themselves as, man, I got this job. I didn't ran up the ranks. I let loose. And it didn't lead to getting fired.
Yeah, right, right, right. So I wanted.
Except for Magic City. So I wanted to know for you, like, a personal experience where you feel like you let loose and there Were some positive benefits to that.
Yeah, like summer, I think it was like July 2021, we had to put out a record and we was doing these promos on Wednesday nights to kind of. We was calling it wasting time. Wednesdays.
And this is in la.
It's in la.
Okay.
Right. And the second week, I caught Covid. And I know where I got the fucking Covid from. It was like this nasty ass New Yorker talking. It's like these super. Like, he probably was from like the Bronx or something. N just wanted to ask a lot of questions. And I watched a piece of spit just fall on my face while he was talking. I was like, oh, my God, didn't he want to shave my hand? I was trying to be like, nice. And then obviously Covid must spread through that whole damn building because he never came in. But like, literally, like three teams, three of the staff members got Covid. No telling how many people that was there got Covid. And so we shut down the last two parties, so we didn't do it. Nothing but two Wednesdays out of four. And I remember being in Covid, I had that shit for like 21 days. It felt like. Like I only was tested positive for the first five days. Then day six, all the way up to day 21, I felt all of the fucking symptoms. Like, kept running a fever. So I got so pissed. I had ordered a bunch of ice and dumped it in my tub and created a whole ice tub to get rid of my fever and shit like that. Right.
How was the fever?
103. It was like. It was to the point where I probably should have went to the doctor.
Yes, sir.
But I was like, in that process, I was like, man, I'm not going to be working this hard for these motherfuckers no more, man. And that's when I decided to start taking more vacations. So by the time 20, early 2020, I mean 2022, I was taking vacations like twice a month.
Oh, wow.
Every other weekend I'm somewhere vacationing. I don't give a fuck if you're just coming to Miami, not talking to nobody. And for me, that was very, very like, let loose, letting you know what I'm saying.
Right.
But letting loose feels like a person that has earned that.
It's an achievement.
Yeah, that's what it feels like. It don't feel like the reckless let loose when you go in the club and you barely don't even know. You don't even know what your college plan is.
Right.
And you're in the Club, you just let it loose. You just trying to have fun. I don't think the way that I interpretated it and interpreted it, the way that he was explaining it to the woman he was on a date with, it came to me as, man, we thinking about getting fuck you money. What happens? Like, we know what you need to do when you're in the bottom. You're trying to grind up. You gotta stay focused, you gotta try to find wellness, try to find happiness, try to find balance. But once you get to the point where you rise up the rankings and you've been a part of successful companies here and there, what does that level of growth or risk taking and things of that nature? Cause it could be some people. Like a woman, for instance. I was just having this conversation. Like a woman feels like she's trying to date men, and it just never has worked out for her. So she said, fuck men. I don't need no man. I'm a zero in on my career. I'm a zero in on my education. And she does that for five, six, seven years. Now she grows up the chain or whatever her actual career is, and she might feel like, okay, now after seven years of focusing on me, focusing on my career, I. I might let loose and let this nigga take me out.
Right, right, right, right, right.
You know what I'm saying? And so I think it has a different connotation when you have earned a certain level of work.
It makes me think about tunnel vision, right? Where you have a very steadfast, narrow perspective, narrow focus. And it seems like once you get to the end of a certain tunnel, you can allow yourself to kind of like expand that viewpoint.
Yeah.
Now you can kind of see a little bit further on the right, a little bit, versus just keeping narrow. And I do believe if you stay narrow, obviously you continue to be fulfilled by your work. But you should not, I guess, beholden yourself to not change. You should accept some type of change, especially if it's like a positive change.
1,000%.
I still think it's kind of hard that the word let loose or loosen up. Because in my mind, we're sort of instilled to tighten up.
Yeah, yeah.
You spend most of your time like, man, you in that grind mode. Tighten up. Do you feel like you can be too tight?
Like, yeah, 1,000%. Like, there. There has to be some level of joy on the journey, right. Because the. The foundation, when we start talking about fuck you, money, it's about being able to identify something don't serve you. Right? So in Order to identify that something don't serve you. There's a certain level of joy that you want to aspire to achieve, right? If you're not trying to achieve joy and wellness within, like, your work environment, you won't even be able to identify that you need fuck your money. You know what I'm saying? You won't even be able to identify that the things that you're attending every day is, like, toxic for you, right? Because you haven't really understood what that joy really means or what that joy could mean. So you can be too tight, you know what I'm saying? And not understanding the element of what all of that means to how it can suffocate your growth.
Mm. I was gonna ask you, how do you define joy? What's your definition of joy?
Well, for me, controlling my time, it's nothing that makes me more motherfucking happy than controlling my time. Like today I was gonna go. I went. I'm golfing, Taking golfing classes and shit, right? So, okay, I went to my golfing coach. Eight o' clock this morning. Then I finished that. Then I came to the crib. It's Saturday, right? So I'm like, get to the crib. You know? I was like, man, I done went to class. I want to go to the range, work on my shot. I was like, well, I don't know if I'm gonna go to the range. I'm gonna go to the. So I'm in the backyard working on my shot with the clubs and shit. Then I'm like, man, fuck this, I'm gonna go to the range. Then I get to the range. It's closed because it's been raining. And they don't open up the range when it's. But then I get back and I'm just like, fuck, guess we'll go eat or, you know, or like. I remember having to work target every. I work target every weekend.
You continue to be fulfilled by your work, but you should not, I guess, beholden yourself to not change. You should accept some type of change, especially if it's like, a positive change, 1,000%. I still think it's kind of hard that the word let loose or loosen up. Because in my mind, we're sort of instilled to tighten up.
Yeah. Yeah.
You spend most of your time, like, man, you in that grind mode. Tighten up. Do you feel like you can be too tight at this point?
Like, yeah, 1,000%. Like, there has to be some level of joy on the journey, right? Because the foundation, when we start Talking about fuck you, money, it's about being able to identify something don't serve you, right? So in order to identify that something don't serve you, there's a certain level of joy that you want to aspire to achieve, right? If you're not trying to achieve joy and wellness within your work environment, you won't even be able to identify that you need fuck your money, you know what I'm saying? You won't even be able to identify that the things that you're attending every day is like, toxic for you, right? Because you don't. You. You haven't really understood, you know, what. What that joy really means or what that joy could mean. So, like, you can be too tight, you know what I'm saying? And not understanding the element of what all of that means to how it can suffocate your growth.
I was gonna ask you, how do you define joy? What's your definition of joy?
Well, for me, control of my time. It's nothing that makes me more motherfucking happy and controlling my time. Like today I was gonna go. I went. I'm golfing, taking golfing classes and shit, right? So I went to my golfing coach, 8 o' clock this morning. Then I finished that. Then I came to the crib. It's Saturday, right? So I'm like, get to the crib, you know? I was like, man, I done went to class. I wanna go to the range, work on my shot. I was like, well, I don't know if I'm gonna go to the range. I'm gonna go to the. So I'm in the backyard working on my shot with the clubs and shit. Then I was like, man, fuck this, I'm gonna go to the range. Then I get to the range, it's closed because it been raining. And they don't open up the range when it's. But then I get back and I'm just like, fuck, guess we'll go to eat or, you know, or like. I remember having to work Target every. I work Target every weekend of every summer for about four years straight. You know what I'm saying? We talking about the nights, like, all. When it. Like that. Two to eight.
What were your hours? Two to eight?
Yeah. I mean, it depends. Two to eight. Sometimes it was six to 10, but it was always right when the shit is happening on Saturdays. Yeah, always.
So you didn't miss no Saturdays.
Every Saturday I was at work.
Jesus.
Yeah, every weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday I was at work. You know what I'm saying? So being Able to control my time is like, it ain't too much. Cause you don't need a lot of money to control your time.
Okay?
So, like, that is a. Some people are like, man, if I can just make X amount of money, if I can get to my job, all of that shit can be like this. You know what I'm saying? But when you find, like, things that don't necessarily have a monetary value to it, or things that has more like. More of like an intrinsic value, got you can have you, in my opinion, happier with your joy. So me being able to control my time is so fucking important.
Mm. Yeah. I mean, I think about you talking about Target. I remember working at Olive Garden and Olive Garden.
Shout out to the bread man.
What? I delivered a lot of bread.
My aunt used to work at Olive Garden. That was all left over for years.
For years.
She was come off.
She was come home.
Olive Garden on deck.
Oh, man. Look, I think the busiest day, if I remember, is Mother's Day. You cannot take off on Mother's Day. It's a blackout day on deck, okay? Because they bringing they mamas. They bringing them.
And coming to Olive Garden to get that salad.
Come on now.
And this is super salad special.
And don't let it be on a Sunday. If Mother's Day fall on Sunday, you for sure they might have to hire new people. Because Sunday, I think Sunday's the busiest day at Olive Garden as well. After church, folks is coming. Soup and salad.
Eating that soup and salad.
Come on now, that's special.
That shit's so salty now. If I eat it, I can't.
But I'm saying, it was so interesting to go from before. Working a job, being able to spend Mother's Day with your mom. And that's a, you know, bonding day. That's a day to kind of like reminisce and all that stuff. Yeah, well, two and a half years I worked at Olive Garden, I ain't seen my mama on Mother's Day.
And then she came and get some of that soup and salad.
Nah, look, she be lucky. Cause you gotta get in line. Our wait time. I mean, within an hour, we got a two hour wait, three hour wait. So again, just kind of understanding. And you there all day.
Who waiting that long for Olive Garden food, sir? I'm just trying to figure it out.
I worked, you know, the, you know, South Lake Mall. Yeah, the Olive Garden right there.
Yeah, that's my guy.
Oh, yeah.
Did you know my Aunt Rita?
Hold on.
How long you work?
Wait, wait, wait. Aunt Rita I worked there 2013, 2015, 2013.
She probably had. Probably gonna stop working, maybe.
The name sound familiar, though?
Rita Wise.
She might have came in. Yeah, she might have came in, but. Yeah, like that. I was gonna. Yeah, they'll wait.
That's when I used to get that waist to hit that thing up. Yeah, that bread and soup and salad by every night, she bring that thing home. The leftovers. Good food, good eating, good time. To Olive Garden.
Shout out to Olive Garden. I won't eat that shit.
Now I'm straight.
I didn't go in for like a year after I quit. I stayed away from the spot I had. I needed a break.
So what's your joy? What keeps you. What is your thing that you, like, brings you joy?
What brings me joy? I don't know, Ty.
Oh, okay.
I really don't.
That's a really great answer.
I don't know if it's a great answer. I think you need to know what brings you joy.
No, no. The fact that you don't know means that you're like, you know, at some point you're searching or you're curious to know.
It was more the realization that I did not know. I feel like the initial joy was. My objective was to quit Olive Garden. That was the goal. It's not that I particularly hated the job, but I knew I wanted to do something in music, media, journalism, things of that nature. So having to go there three or four times a week made me feel like this was not where I wanted to be. Attending a place you don't want to be makes you very. It makes it very clear where you want to go. So it's all about the escape route. I think we had the episode getting away from the thing that doesn't serve you. I think once you're in a place that you were trying to get to, discovering, I think the first joy is actually arriving. That's the first joy. Being able to be there, working in the space, having some success. All those things become joyful. And then you do that for a couple years, and maybe the highs don't really give you the same kind of like. It's like that sugar rush. You don't really get the same kind of sugar rush. It's still like, yeah, it's up, but now it's like repeating. It's like repeating. It's like repeating, and you're starting to look for new things that kind of drive you. And I think this year I started to kind of realize that, like, certain things weren't really scratching the same Itches or kind of inspiring the same kind of motivations. And I didn't know if it was like, you need to find a joy outside of this the way you found, like, golf or you can find the range. Cause I found that a lot of people say you need to have an outside thing.
Yeah.
You gotta have something outside of your work that fulfills you. I never really felt like I needed something like that because the work was so fulfilling.
You know, that's a chapter that I've been toying with for Culture Playbook Volume 2 is the main thing can't be the joy thing. And so I haven't figured out, like, what's the. Like what's the. What's the. I can't. I'm trying to figure out the literature or the. Like the title. Right. But the concept of it is whatever your main thing is, like, that can't get too intertwined into your joy. Now you can have excitement working within an industry that you love, but you have to, like, you're like. Cause children can bring a person joy outside of their actual thing. Right. Or being able to spend time with their mom or being able to go and sit at the beach. You know these things. It's like when the lights are turned off, when nobody is watching. What do you like to do? You know what I'm saying? And speaking towards that, as people are on these really, really, I say horrendous journeys to try to change their lives. Because the truth of the matter is, there is no passive way to change your life. You have to put your mind, your body, your faith through a very horrendous. Yeah, like, journey to break through. If not, then you could just be regular life, like. Like whatever the average life that's happening in the United States of America, you live that. But if you're trying to, like, change your life in a. In a way that none of your family has experienced, it's not a smooth journey.
I don't think anyone is ever. Explain that to me like that. I think the idea of changing your life, especially if you see someone else, let's say like a Jay Z. Right. Everyone understands that he was like a drug dealer, now he's a rap mogul. And it looks like he changed his life like that. Like, he just recorded some songs and all of a sudden he's hov.
Right?
That's how it appears. I was gonna bring this up too.
This.
This concept of survival bias.
Yeah.
Which means we look at the success rates people that overcame and not the bodies they stepped over 1,000%, you know, and to your point though, I just feel like your life changed, you know, where you were is not where you arrived at. But did you feel like you were on like a horrendous journey?
1,000%. Now listen there. If you're being honest about what resources you want to achieve in life, if your goal is to make more money than the average working class citizen, that's your goal. If your goal is to have, you know, more education than the working class citizen.
Right.
There is no easy route to that. I don't give fault what nobody tells you. I'm telling you this. I got two degrees, two certifications, like it ain't no easy route to it. And it's this concept that in order to achieve wealth, you have to go through war.
That might be a chapter right there.
Yeah, yeah. 1,000% like them W's are related. It ain't no way, it's no way to wealth without going through war. Because you're always gonna have to defend. That's why black people don't have no wealth. Cause we never had reinforcement to fight, you know what I'm saying? From these aspects of it, you know what I mean? Like, the Internet started becoming our weapon because we could be able to use it against racism, we could be able to use it against like poverty, we could be able to use it against like lack of information, you know what I'm saying? But there ain't no wealth without war. Point blank, period. And so if you don't understand that, then, you know, you're not finna get wealth through being passive aggressive in your overall visions, your actions, all of these different type of things, you know what I'm saying? So when you hear about.
Oh.
Jeff Bezos, you know, how Amazon is treating their workers, like all of these different things, like there are layoffs and people are like, oh, the people that are at the top, they're wealthy, they can afford. They know this shit is war because they're thinking about the wealth for their family. That's it. They're not thinking about it. Nothing got going on with your family. They actually don't even know how your motherfucking family looks, if we're being honest.
Yeah.
And so when we're talking about joy, we're talking about these journeys, when we're talking about controlling our time, when we're talking about fuck you, money. Fuck you money is a very aggressive term for a reason. Because if you're gonna tell somebody you don't want to do nothing or you don't feel like you should be doing this. Or it doesn't. It's not. You're not happy doing it, or it doesn't make you feel good, you better be ready for war. Cause they gonna be like, well, fuck you then. This is my job. And if you want this job, you gonna have to motherfucking do what we say do. It's the same thing about when you stay at your mama house. If you under my mama roof, Mama rules. Yep. You under daddy roof. Is daddy roof. Daddy and mama basically say, yo, fuck you. If you don't like this shit, you can gladly leave. I mean, we'll still love you and support you. But if you here, you gotta be in by this time. You gotta clean. If you gonna mess up, you gotta cook. If you gonna. All of these different things. I think people have this, like, this unrealistic notion. Unrealistic notion that I'm gonna work really, really hard.
And boom, it's just gonna happen.
It's gonna happen for me. Cause I work really, really hard, right? Nah, man. This motherfucker shit is war. It's in the Bible. You know what I'm saying? Like, to be able to get through and see high levels of success, it's wisdom. It's being bravery. It's being aggressive. You know what I'm saying? It's being defending. You know what I'm saying?
It's not just the financial side of things.
The financial side of it is. But you gotta be educated and knowledgeable to know how to even fight and protect. That you gotta think about. Most people sign off on things because they're not actually taking the time to educate themselves. Because they don't really value education. Cause they don't value reading. Right? I'm in a situation right now where I'm helping this kid get his publishing back. Just so happened. It happened on my watch, off of a record that we sampled. And we found out just through, really. One of my close friends. Son. Friend. Who happened to produce a record that sampled a Brent record. And just so happened I hadn't cleared the record yet. It had been sitting in my inbox since, like, March. I hadn't cleared it yet. I knew it was there and I was gonna clear it. But then I learned that the kid signed a predatory agreement that took all his publishing, his master ownership, and his master royalty for $700. I was like, man, y' all got me fucked up once again. I'm on the phone with my man's like. My man's like, yo, you wanna talk to the dude, man? I don't wanna talk to you, bro. If he's giving black. If you're a black man and you giving black kids that type of deal, I don't wanna talk to you. You know what I'm saying? So people will look at that and be like, oh, man. And just turn a blind eye because they still getting their money. They still getting that. I'm like, nah, man. Y' all listen. Their record would get pulled down today. You better call the label, whoever the fuck it is, because now y' all gotta deal with it. And so now you got me super aggressive on your email, like, yo, this shit better be fixed. The paperwork coming. Take my shit down. Cause it's not fair. So war is coming into. There's war for people that have not done anything wrong. There's warriors for people that want to do all the wrong. You know what I'm saying?
I got you.
So at the end of the day, if you're trying to have a breakthrough, that shit gonna feel like war. Either war with yourself, your confidence, you know, survivor guilt, or, you know what I'm saying, imposter syndrome, like therapy, all this shit. It's a certain level of warfare that you're having either externally or internally.
And then there's war after success.
1000%. 1000%.
In a case like this, though, I mean, even emailing aggressively, you knew you could not be passive about.
Yeah, I told my. I put my shit down, man. Everything I do is aggressive when it comes to business. If I'm negotiating the show, I want 100% merch. Booking agent be like, man, they don't want to give you. Cancel the show, then. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Wait a minute. Let me call them. Yeah, that show, cancel it. Because at the end of the day, I'd rather cancel the show than let you feel like you got over on me. Wow it.
And you always been like that.
Yes.
You didn't have, like, a situation where you were passive, and it changed your, like, perspective, point of view.
Nah, because I played a very gruesome sport, undersized. So, like, my natural nature is to, like, see, like, head on with things. Like, if I'm passive aggressive with somebody, that's probably because I'm more. I might. I don't know. I can't even. I ain't even passive aggressive with my mama. You know what I'm saying?
She ain't really passive aggressive with you though, either.
Yeah, she definitely not. She definitely not. So.
But that makes sense, though.
Yeah. So for me, I don't really understand certain things. I'm always gonna have, like a strong stance when it comes to progression, you know what I'm saying? Like, us being here today, right, being able to fly around, make whatever money that we make is a direct and indirect stance of the people protesting black people rights in Montgomery, Alabama. That's like, yo, fuck this. We ain't taking this bus. Yo, fuck this. Fuck y'.
All.
Like, it was a very, very. We are byproducts of that level of war.
Yeah, aggressive war.
We are a byproduct of Martin Luther King version of it. We are a byproduct of Malcolm X. All of this shit is some level of mental or physical war. And I just don't think black people understand that.
Maybe because so much time has gone by. Like, I know. I remember reading how when they look at like civil rights pictures there in black and white to make you feel like it was a longer time ago than. Than today. Yeah, it wasn't that long ago, but it might feel that way because you didn't necessarily have anyone tell you you couldn't get on this bus or you can't use this bathroom. You know, again, we watch it in documentaries. We learned it in school. But you don't necessarily. Some of our grandparents, you might have a great grandparent that was a slave, you know, again. But I think the further the generation gets from the actual dates and times and events, and maybe your mindset is like, well, we're so much beyond that. We're more advanced and that we progress past that. But you should not lose that same kind of fight is what I'm getting at, is what you're saying.
White people who did not experience slavery will go to war with other white people to protect their wealth. It happens every single day. Has nothing to do with race. That's why I say it doesn't really matter what race slavery. It's a part of like generational, generational cement, you know what I'm saying? You want to cement your bloodline into ecosystems and countries that no matter where that person is born at, if they have that bloodline, they're gonna have a better opportunity at being successful in life than the next person. Pump lamp here. That's what, that's why there are, I think, 150 or you see 150 or 190 Rockefeller hairs that live or benefit from the Rockefeller trust. It's either 150 or 190 today that benefits from that trust.
From that trust, one trust could potentially feed 190 mouths.
That's families.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't think I knew that.
Yeah, 1,000%. So it's like, you know, and that was my youth. The Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts, they both found the wealth around the same time.
Right.
John Rockefeller Jr. He took his dad's success and he started to multiply it. He the one that structured this trust, all these different things. The Vanderbilts, their second generation, they went crazy. They started blowing the money, being wild with it. Squandered, squandered. They did all the flashy shit through all the big parties, generation by generation by generation. Now, today, the Vanderbilts, they're not nowhere near as wealthy as the Rockefeller or powerful. They was white, but they was irresponsible with their hair, their air. They was irresponsible with their resources. They were irresponsible with the information. Once again, they are white. You see what I'm saying?
So it wasn't like systematically.
It ain't got shit doing no systematically. It's the fucking, man. It's the brain.
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying? Because systems are controlled by some human pulling the button.
Right?
Right. And I use that example because I'm like, when you're trying to take a seed, let's say that seed is $2 million. That was whatever you want to grow that so that. That $2 million can multiply and multiply year over year, year over year, year over year. So after 20 years, that $2 million is now $20 million or $100 million. Right. It takes very strategic and aggressive actions to be able to achieve that while being disciplined and understanding that I have an even difficult route on this because I'm black. So I just automatically gotta assume that this information that I'm not even getting to be able to help me with this 2 million. You know what I'm saying? So I tell everybody, man, if you trying to achieve wealth for your family, for your bloodline, it's war. If you don't approach it no other way, good luck.
And you still gotta let loose.
Gotta let loose, man.
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying?
To bring it back to a little bit more lighter. A little lighter, fewer bodies. I mean, I love the idea that there is. Is there art to your war, to how Thai basin goes.
Education. At this point, it's education because the more and more we get removed from slavery, the more and more education is so much more powerful for black people and discipline, the further we get removed from slavery. With the way technology is going, the way that it's all about the systems and it's all about understanding. It's about early adapters. Racism is probably gonna keep lasting just like it did for the Jews. They happen to figure it out. Right? So we still have to know that with every. Even with COVID I think that when we look back 50 years after Covid, the people that understood what Covid was is gonna have the best experience with the wealth transfer. Covid was a punctuation in history. It was, it was like before Christ. After Christ, yeah. It's a punctuation in history.
It's definitely a B.C.
It was nothing. It's just like how it was for the Spanish flu. After the Spanish flu, so many millionaires was created. So many young me, so many. Like, it's a trans. It was a transfer of wealth. Covid. Like I, I thought I was gonna get rich when Obama was in office. I was like, well, that nigga Obama in the office, nigga about to get rich. Think everybody, you know what I'm saying? Everybody get rich. Obama in the office, motherfucker. And I started feeling a little kind of way when I started making more money with him.
Trump's in the office.
I was like, this some bullshit, right? It wasn't like, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, but after Covid, it's a real wealth transfer happening. Point blank period. We only three years removed from it.
Yes, sir.
Like when I say remove, meaning when it actually hit.
Yeah.
Versus where we at today, Right.
The date of arrival.
It's a real wealth transfer happening. And for any person that is a person of color or official hillbilly, there's trailer park trash who just as fucked up as a nigga on Bankhead, you know what I'm saying? But there's a. Literally, it was a wealth transfer and Covid punctuated time in history. And everybody that understands that and is reading and following along and seeing all the different opportunities that's happening, you know what I'm saying? I feel like you're going to benefit from it.
I mean, I like how you picked that because it was. I don't think at the time we recognized we were in a time of great transition, because I think it was kind of centered around that this was going to happen very fast, that Covid was going to get in. Because I think what we. They locked everybody down, but it wasn't perceived as this is going to be a long term thing. We're gonna get this under control. Then it was like back to normal, right? And I think even conceptualizing a new normal meant that something had changed. And with that change, you feel like it's a trans. Not just a transfer of wealth, but like a mentality transfer. I think people kind of came out of COVID with the people that were thinking about how they wanted to change their lives kind of came out with a different perspective, a different intention, 1,000%. And even, like, I had this idea to interview people who started businesses during COVID to see how different your experience was compared to starting a business before COVID and seeing what businesses sort of lasted or what people learned from starting a business in the pandemic. And I feel like this, fuck you, money is a business that came out of the pandemic as well, 1000%. Do you feel like you've learned anything that you did not know before COVID that you kind of instill in your businesses now?
I didn't know how powerful ownership was before COVID really. Like, I knew ownership was powerful, but Covid showed me how powerful ownership is because people had to start getting fired or laid off or whatever terminology you want to use that I ain't finna give you no more money.
Oh, man.
You started to realize, like, not only being an owner, it gave you access to even get the benefits from the ppl, all that stuff, being an owner. Cause you gotta give certain documentation to be able to say, I'm gonna get this money so that I can help my employees. Right?
Yep.
Only owners was in that conversation. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? And so we talk a lot about a lot of shit we don't really understand. Cause we read it somewhere, right? We read it somewhere. But the truth is, that was very loud when Covid started happening. You know what I'm saying? Very, very loud when Covid started happening. And so for me, that's like. For me. What about you?
I would say flexibility is so important. I'll never forget coming off an airplane after the NBA strike. Once I'm done. The NBA strike, the NBA shut down. I was in Tulsa, Oklahoma. So I get back to Atlanta, and now I'm in Covid Atlanta.
So Covid Atlanta. Still outside, though. We still was outside.
Well, no, no, this is before. This is before. This is before they opened up. Cause again, like, let's say the NBA shut down. I probably came home, like, three days later.
Yeah, the NBA shut down in March.
Yeah.
Right.
I'm coming home three days after it got shut down.
But all I'm saying is I got to Atlanta May 2020.
Yeah.
And although I was in Monroe, but LA Fitness was still open, boy, I was down there. Still taking it that way.
Atlanta did not take it seriously. But what I was saying was I get in this Uber from the airport and my man that was driving me was saying how his business was a business that delivered food to hotels. Hotels were shutting down. So all of a sudden his business was. He didn't have no. He didn't have nowhere to deliver food because he was delivering it to all the hotels. He didn't know what to do except for drive Uber.
Yeah.
So for me, when I saw that he owned a business, but he wasn't prepared for something to stop working, for the hotel to shut down. Because he's saying as long as I got hotels, I got food to deliver. I saw that happen. I saw my parents had a business that they had to close the doors. So it's just thinking about how you never know what's going to happen next. And I think the most flexible people not only figured out how to kind of not keep their lights on, keep the doors open, but like maybe even find a breakthrough.
So let's make sure we're talking about the layers of ownership. You just named a bunch of service businesses. Yeah, Right. That's one layer. That's one layer of ownership. Then you got people that own land, right. That's like where people need to build stuff, lease all these type of things. Right. Then you have people that own ip. That's like the software copyrights music. I started to realize there's levels to ownership.
Yeah.
Like, yeah, bro, that's delivering this food to the hotel. He gotta wake up outta his bed every day, figure out what's the route, go out and pitch all the different things. Little tricky, you know What I'm saying? Versus the 18 wheeler truck driver, they gotta get the food to the grocery stores. Cause they still had to get food going.
Yeah.
His job really ain't slow down the same way. No, that bro, they gotta deliver the food to the hotels.
Not at all.
So it gave me a very clear, more clear thought process on how multi layer ownership really is.
You know what I'm saying?
I'm feeling that.
Around that same time, I met a guy who was towing cars.
Oh yeah.
And he told me that he even applied for the job because he wanted a business that he knew he could invest in. He was like, folks is always gonna need their cars towed. So he didn't feel like his job was affected by Covid because people were still driving. So people were still in tow zones, cars were still being picked up. So I think it's sometimes like a mentality thing like really kind of understanding the ins and outs of your business and how your ownership or even how that role is going to be affected long term in the world. So, you know, like music music didn't go nowhere when Covid hit. Live music was affected. But as far as like listening to music on Spotify, Apple Music, there were surges there. So obviously if you had publishing, if you had ownership of your masters, you saw benefit from the fact that so many people were sitting at home listening to music 1000%. So I don't. I mean, but you saw that as well. I mean, we talked about this before as far as building a business around streaming and not necessarily building a business around live music. And you saw how that bet was further influenced when Covid hit.
1,000%. Yeah, 1,000%.
Do you still feel that way today? It's like if you working in music, think about building your business around streaming.
Yeah, 1,000%. Cause it's not about. We didn't build our business around streaming per se. We built a business around the money that the music makes. It just so happened that streaming was one of the sources of it.
Right?
The whole thought process of it was if major labels have built these big buildings, been able to get financial investment, raise money through their shareholders, through their private equity partners, whatever the case may be, solely off of owning the music. They don't own the touring, they don't own the merchandise, just solely owning the musics, being able to get financial investment, raise money through their shareholders, through their. Ain't like trying to private equity partners, whatever the case may be, solely off of owning the music, they don't own the touring, they don't own the merchandise, just solely owning the music. Revert. The revert. The real universal owned the masters. Taiwan owns the masters. You know what I'm saying? It's a very simple business proposition. I'm not trying to go out like doing like that wasn't my thinking. I just was like they seem to really, really, really fight for ownership of these masters. Why? When albums wasn't selling, they still was fighting for ownership of it. When albums are selling, they're still fighting for ownership of it. When they are actually not even in the position anymore as they was 25, 30 years ago, they still are convincing niggas to sell their masters. So there must be something there that we just don't know about. So I'm just gonna go on a step of faith to say there's something there that I'm not seeing. So I want my motherfucking. I'm Owning my shit.
Following the paper trail.
Following the paper trail.
You just follow the money. And the money said on some masters or don't give up your masters.
Don't give up your masters or your publishing if you bought it. So, yeah, so that's. That was the thinking. It wasn't even about solely screaming. It's just all of the revenue that comes from the ownership of the music because the music is less impactful. The music is what people listen to every day. So even if screaming wasn't a thing, album sales, syncs, you know, royalties from publishing, royalties from performance rights, all of those different things. Sound exchange, all of these things, you know, vinyls, whatever the case may be. So I'm just like, man, shit. I'm doing what the white folk do. It's a white folks country. America is a white person's country. So if a white person is owning the masters of black music, I want to own some masters of black music. They must know something that I just cannot conceptually grasp at this particular time. You know what I'm saying? And that's just how my thinking was when it came down to, y' all own some land. I want to own some land. I'm just copying the people that. That move the goal post, you know what I mean? I ain't trying to fucking hit the goal post. I'm just trying to copy the people that's moving the goalpost.
You ain't trying to necessarily move the goal posts.
Yeah, no, we don't have enough history here to move the goal post. Not history and power, you know what I'm saying? We don't have enough history. So I'm not trying to move no goal post. I'm just. If they put up a goal post, shit, I'm gonna put a goal post.
Up right next to it.
They just put up a goal post by the time I put up the goal post. And the things that I don't understand, you know what I'm saying? I'm not gonna follow them on how to dress, you know what I'm saying? Like, there's no. No knock. Like, that's what we know how to do, right? But if they, like, right now, I'm building out my trust based off of the John Rockefeller trust strategy. That's how I'm building out my trust. So I'm on the phone with the lawyer, I'm sending videos on Instagram and shit. This, I want like this. And they're like, okay, now that trust went from, you know, the price went up by like six times.
Oh, the price, when you broke down how you developed yours?
Yes. I was like, oh, okay.
Did you know that beforehand?
Hell, no, I didn't know that beforehand. It was gonna cost me more money. I thought it was just. You know what I'm saying?
I thought I was just giving an example of the structure I wanted.
This is the structure I wanted. And I have a black woman that was doing my attorney at first, my planning, my trust planning at first. She called me, she said, Mr. Bazdin, going through all the documents and everything, you turned in your business seemed more sophisticated. And I don't want to put you in this type of trust, but I need to bring in one of my partners who's a lot more experienced and the type of trust I think you should be in. I can't even really explain none of that to you. I have to go back to my notes and re. Listen to this shit because it's so sophisticated. I was like, oh, yeah. Like, well, then it was like the number. I was like, ooh, that number.
Anything sophisticated.
That's a number. That number's sophisticated.
Did you know you were building a sophisticated trust?
No, man, I told you. I'm just copying what the white folks. When it comes to shit that was created before us, like when we start talking about trust and insurance and all these different type of things, man, we overall pay rate, but it's above our pay rate. We gotta go and really sit down and learn that. So one of the best way to learn is to walk through the process. Some people can't afford it, but it's still a learning. You can go and study it. You know what I'm saying? If you want to talk to a lawyer about any level of a trust, but it's no different than studying fashion or studying, you know what I'm saying? Songwriters, whatever, it's still the same level of studying. So for me, I was just like, nah, man. If Rockefellers was able to do this type of trust, there's no rules that say that we can't do it. We just don't have the information or sometimes the funding to even put it up.
Right? Because if you can find the example, but you don't have the funding to have that trust developed. And you probably gonna take a less sophisticated trust.
Yeah, and me, I'm thinking. I'm not thinking about that. It's not sophisticated. Like, I was like, oh, this is sophisticated trust. I was just like, man, I just got. I got some instructions.
Yeah.
Like, this is. If you want to get some money from this trust, you Gotta go to college and you gotta submit your plan cousin to the board. And if the board approve your plan, then you get the loan. But then you gotta pay that loan back over time. But if you take the loan, then we gotta put an insurance policy on you so that if you don't, if you're not able to pay it back.
When you die, you're gonna get that thing back.
You gonna get that thing back that way. I got all type of instructions. Cause I'm looking at this, I'm like, all right, so they got instructions. I need to put some instructions. I got. I'm gonna put some instructions. Like white man, put some instructions. I'm gonna have some instructions. I'm gonna have some instructions for my wife, my kids, my mama, my friends. But everybody gonna have instructions, including me.
That you have to follow.
Yeah. So it's like now it's not. Cause I believe, I don't believe in passing down money to uneducated motherfuckers. I believe in passing down opportunities. Because if you get the opportunity and you serious, you're gonna go and learn. You know what I'm saying? If you get the opportunity and you serious, you're gonna go and learn. So I'm like, I watch some of my family members get money when people die and they bloated. I watched niggas get money when nobody died and they bloated. So in my mind I'm like, yeah, I'm not passing no money down. Yeah, I might pass, you know, a building down or yeah, you're gonna pass some opportunity to have an interest free loan to go to college. And you gotta keep a certain grade point average. And if you got that, that grade point average drop below that dip, you better be able to make up that difference, you know what I'm saying? Because I feel like that doing that for 20 years is gonna extend my bloodline and my trust for 100 years.
100 years. Yeah.
You know what I'm saying? Because now people are not just getting stuff just because of who was their grandfather, who was their great uncle. They're getting things because they presented a plan and they followed through on the plan. They kept having integrity and it's being protected and being reinvested and you just gotta have the right individuals in place. You know what I'm saying?
So just being Ty's great, great, great grandson is not just gonna be a privilege of having money you're going to earn.
Yeah, you got to.
Now the other family, not the Rockefellers, that was the Vanderbilts. The Vanderbilts yeah, they did not have.
They don't want to be the Vanderbilts. Hell, no. They would pass down money.
So pretty much, you were just born into that family.
I know. Well, but if I was throwing the lavish parties, boy, they were basically some niggas.
I was gonna say celebrities, but that, too. But they were acting the way people assume niggas act when they get smoked. And they burn through it.
Maybe niggas acting like them.
Maybe that's the example.
But they burned through it.
It came from somewhere.
Yeah. Y' all just chat. Do some research on the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts.
Cause they got wealth around the same time you said.
Yeah.
And now we all know the Rockefellers.
We know the Rockefellers. I don't think I've really heard of Vanderbilt University. Yeah, that's out there. They're not for the Vanderbilt.
So they got the school still.
Yeah. You know, you get a school, you can get all that funded, you know?
Yeah. But as far as we have money to pass down to your relatives, to your bloodline.
Yeah. Their pockets ain't as deep as they used to be. Nah, pockets ain't as deep.
They probably feel that shit, too.
Hey, man, you know, this is a great episode of fuck you, money.
This was a great episode.
Yeah.
Thank you, sir Ty, for all your wisdom and your time.
Of course.
You know, it's very real. Yeah.
Yeah. Same. We coming live again from Miami. Different location.
Different location. Different location. This would have been a good show. Someone would have paid us some money for this.
Oh, yeah. I mean, somebody gonna pay me some money.
Oh, yeah. I'm talking about, like, we was, like, on NBC or hbo. If this was a TV show episode.
I mean, this might be a pilot.
Yeah. I mean, I'll submit it. I got some folks I heard stars is looking for some.
Yeah, they Definitely make us 50. Keep threatening them to leave.
I'm telling you, that's power.
