 Yep, Charlamagne the God. My guy Andrew Schoach is running around the globe right now, but he'll be back next week. But today's episode is brought to you by Squarespace from websites and online stores, the marketing tools and analytics. Squarespace is the all-in-one platform to build a beautiful online presence and run your business. There are no hidden fees or price hikes and all websites are optimized for mobile. And it's so simple. Start with a design template and use drag and drop tools to make it your own. Head to squarespace.com slash idiot for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use the offer code idiot to save 10% off your first purchase. Now let's start the show. Man, I gotta say something, man. Look at God because these three individuals that we have in here today, I didn't even know that they was gonna be on the show this week, you know, but they in town. So why not? The ghetto legends themselves, DC Young Fly, Chico Bean, Carlos Miller, collectively known as the 85 South Show. Fresh off of number one trending show on Netflix. Number one trending, knocked off Black Mirror. Number one trending in America. I'm gonna go get that tatted. Damn. Number one. Number one. Number one, 85 South. Knocking off Black Mirror. Knocking off Black Mirror. That's the flagship show. Yeah. I mean, it's a big show. Black Mirror is a huge show. Yeah. I told you. I mean, no matter who, I don't want to say knock off because, you know, I salute everybody and you know, in all their endeavors. But it's like, this is what happens when you allow people to create for real. You know what I'm saying? To the people who we didn't expect to be watching us or who we never thought was watching us. But we've been number one to all the 85 percent. Oh yeah. I tell people, if you just, you just getting hip to the 85 South Show and you definitely culturally clueless. I told y'all, I was in Cannes, France at Cannes Lions with all the advertisers and all the corporations. And when that shit came out, that y'all went number one. It was either two reactions. People like, oh shit, congratulations. 85 South been out here cooking. Number two is, who is the 85 South Show? And why don't we know about them? Come on in, white people of your dollars. I love them. All the way. I want people to watch the show and be like, how did I not know? Why am I out the loop? Why didn't nobody tell me? Yeah. I love when people first discover the show, man. And salute to your vision, man, because you know, you've always been tapped into what we do in our talents and always have used your platform to give us a bigger platform to step up to and show the world what it is that we do. So, gotta salute to you, man, because you know, we first got kicked off, man. You was one of the first that saw it and it was like, man, I want to be a part of what y'all got going on. So, you know what I mean? Now that the world is starting to realize that you could take some of the credit and be like, man, I've been new, you know what I mean? I've been plugged into what the niggas got going on. So, man, thank you. That's why I wanted Chad to sit in here, man, because I think, you know, people talk to y'all about a bunch of stuff all the time. Who is Chad to y'all, first of all? I fucking nuisance. Chad, a whole ass nigga. My nigga, man. My nigga, man. My nigga right there, man. My dog, man. I've been knowing Chad since he was about 17, man. Right? Yeah, I met Chad. Chad, one of the first people. Chad and Clayton English, one of the first. They're the first couple of people that I met when I moved to Atlanta. We used to work together. Okay. My dog, man. And then it's like, I seen him go from just slacker to the most, you know what I mean? Dedicated, detailed business, man. It's the craziest transition that I have ever seen. She go, she go get eaten here if you want to. I'm not going to eat in the mic. I'm going to turn the mic. It's for them. God damn, man. Taylor just doing her job. I'm recording. I'm recording. You need to record yourself. Yeah, but it's all good. I ain't about to chew on the mic. I ain't no seed, but you ain't say nothing. That's why they cover it up. It's a lot of bad broth motherfuckers been on here. Yes, they have. You asking about Chad, though, man. Chad, handle all the details, man. He don't mind being on them calls and going to them lunches. And, you know, doing that, that dog and pony show with the corporate people. So that's what that's his role. He makes sure everything is streamlined. Handle all the details of, you know, the day to day operations of the 85 South Show. That's good, because that's what I wanted to talk to y'all about today, man, the business of the 85 South Show, because I don't think people realize, you know, how much y'all are doing on the business things. People watch y'all cultural impact. So I want to get into a lot of that today. But the people who don't know and they just getting on to y'all because of the next week special going number one, who is the 85 South Show? And I want an answer from each one of y'all because I know it's probably different from each one of y'all. What you got, Flan? What y'all up, Chad? What you got? Who is the 85 South Show, Chad? It's a media company that produces across all of the platforms to create without any inhibition, you know, because we've all tried Hollywood. I've tried it from the corporate side trying to work for people. And they've also tried it from the talent side. You know, at some point you just want your own freedom. And it's like with the Southern, you know, with the Southern flair for it. DC? I feel like the hood always wanted a superhero. And we ain't never really like, you know, you watch Batman, you watch all of them. You like, damn. Even watch the other one like, you like, they even went in the water before they came to the hood, right? You know, it's like who the hell is going to come over here and speak for us, talk for us and not only that, be for us. And I feel like 85 South is like a collection of, it's like Captain Plant of just every hood, every, not only just hood, every motherfucker who done been through something and overcame something and understand they have some type of humility is we represent them. Not saying the bottom of the barrel, but people who always get overlooked, the underdog, the motherfucker who may not have the opportunity to have this outlet or this position, but they make the best out of everything that they come across. So we like a big Captain Planet for every last one of those people around the world because when we go do our shows, these are the type of people we bring out. These are the type of people we, we got some executives in there, but we got some people that's in there that look crazy, but it's like, every day 85% is, that's what we do it for, man. So it's like 85 South show is literally like our go-to superhero. Chico. 85 South is a one-on-one innovation. It's something that's never been done before. When you see the legends, the greats tell us that man, y'all doing something that's never been done before. That really puts it in perspective of what it is that we're accomplishing over here because you've never seen three people who are individual stars be able to come together and share the spotlight. And it wasn't that it couldn't have been done, they just never did it. So the fact that we chose to do it has created a whole nother lane of comedy that didn't exist before we started to do it the way that we do it. I mean, you've had improv troops, you've had, you know, the country guys that went on tour and together and all of that, but you've never seen three black entertainers get on stage together and do it the way that we've done it because for some reason throughout time, they've always had that me, me, me mentality and I got to be the only one and I got to be the man. So this is something that has created a lane of comedy that didn't exist for our people. And I think that, you know, it's innovative and it's one-on-one in that regard because now from what you see us do, you're gonna be able to see a whole nother type of comedian and type of comedy come out and the fact that we've been able to do it so consistently and, you know, to be able to give it to people the way that we've given it to them, we've now went number one on the biggest streaming platform. So now you know that there's value in this style of comedy before you don't have anything to compare it to because you can't compare it to something that has never been done before. But now you have a gauge to be able to compare what we do to what we've done, if you will. So I think that it's innovative in that regard and it's a one-on-one until, you know, we continue to open and break down these doors for people to come behind us and, you know, like you said, they're gonna be talking about what we're doing for years to come and I don't even think people recognize it, but now that we've gone number one on Netflix, I think the conversation is gonna start a little bit more. So I just think, you know, the best way to explain it is the 85 South Show is a one-on-one. Carlos, who's the 85 South Show to you? The 85 South Show is the Avengers of entertainment because you get to see us do so many things and I always think about that scene with the Avengers where it's just total chaos and motherfuckers flying by doing backflips and jumping off of shit. I think that's the best way to describe it. It's a family environment. Everybody's a mutant. They got multiple talents that they bring it to the table. Every time we do something from doing Netflix, to hosting the BET Awards, man. It's just- Two times. Yeah, it's a range of talent over here. DC, Sing, Dan's, do backflips, Skate, Chico is gonna come up with the coldest, dopest, purplest, pinkest, smoothest, silkiest fabrics in America. It's like, it's just crazy to- Yeah, it's just crazy to see the type of talents that you get to be around and then you get guys like Chad who can do the four hour conference calls and then you got guys like Joe and Kat who just bring all these different weapons to the table that's just at our disposal and that's why we're able to cover so much ground because it's not just the talent is dope. We're surrounded by people who are dope as hell and whatever they do, from the dude rolling the blunt to the blunt fucking setting up the camera to the drivers, to the people booking the travel, like we have cultivated our village to have the coldest people around us. And y'all not just three people getting in front of microphones talking, you know what I mean? That's what a lot of people, when they see podcasts, that's what they think, right? All of y'all come from a standup comedy background. Right. What made y'all choose standup comedy? A bra. I'm talking about initially, like when y'all- You don't get to choose to be a standup comedian. Don't choose. It's kind of like an affliction. It's like, even when you dead ass serious and people still laugh at you, it's like, oh, you must be one of those guys. That's the type of affliction you got. You a comedian. Even when you dead ass serious, people think it's funny. So it's like, just to be around, guys like DC and Chico and Clayton English and Nav and Moneybag, Mafia and just like, these guys are even in their most serious moments, they still hilarious human in any situation. Like we didn't laugh at the most inappropriate shit. It's like, you don't get to choose that because you don't get to practice that. Being a comedian is naturally in you. I feel like every black family got that one comedian in the family that never did comedy before. We just the ones from our family that stood and took that chance and went on stage with it. How did y'all know how to go on stage though? Especially somebody like you DC, cause they all, they like- I mean, my manager at the time, I wanted some money. So that's how I got, that's how I got it. I looked up, I was like, you got to show at nine o'clock. I was like, nine o'clock at night. And before you know it, but I had to break the ice though. That's the only thing I can say, I'm glad they did and forced me to do, you know what I'm saying? And once I did break the ice, it was no more, you don't have to force me to do this. It's now it's like, I broke the ice and it was like, ooh, that's the hardest part about standup is when you gonna ever go on stage. You was already hot on social media. That's just social media, damn a phone. This real life in real time, you know what I'm saying? The shit you say on the net ain't formulated into a joke. It's just some funny shit you said. Now this is where you have to perfect your craft. And once I broke down the ice and I was like, you know what, it's time for me to find out what is a comedian, how to be a comedian and what can I do with all my other attributes? I cannot bring them and enhance me being a comedian. And once I really took it serious, it was like, oh, I've been doing it. I just had to be a professional. Jico, when you first took on that stage? When I graduated from college, I graduated from West Salem State and was trying to figure out what I was gonna do with myself. And you know, a friend of mine named Jerome, who was my partner at the time, you know what I'm saying? We was doing everything as far as hosting the step shows and the pageants and all that stuff for the school. And it was like, you should try comedy. And mind you, I've been public speaking my whole life. I've been in front of people talking, but comedy was never something that I thought to do. I was always a fan and I loved the art of it, but I never thought to do it. And then even in me hosting the shows at the school, the laughs that I would get, I just, you know, I didn't attribute it to being a standup comedian. I just thought I was good at hosting stuff. So, you know, it was an open mic at the Comedy Zone in Greensboro every first and second, Thursday of the month. I went to first Thursday, everybody bombed. I was like, well, shit, I can least do this bad. And I went back the next week and went up and did four minutes. And after I did them four minutes, it's like a movie. When I came off the stage and my feet hit the floor, I was like, oh, shit, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. Your life changed. This is what I'm supposed to, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. It's like, if I felt it like, this is my calling. This is what I'm supposed to be doing. This is the way that I'm supposed to, you know, impact the world. And I felt it even as an open mic of my first time doing four minutes on stage. And in my mind, I kill. You really can't kill in four minutes. But I did. Especially your first time. In my mind, I just fucked these people up in here. I'm the next Eddie Murphy. Yeah, exactly. But at the same time, yeah. I was like, I need to work. You know what I mean? You bombed? I didn't bombed. They was just looking at me. Which is worse than booze. Because you said yesterday, at least people got the energy to boo you. When people, they just looking at you, boy, you doing bad, bad. And I had one person laughing, but he was drunk. He was like, ah, ah, ah, ah. But I was like, man, now it's like I know I'm doing bad. But he was like, no, he was the only person that really gave me motivation. He was like, no, you find it. But you just got to find it to perfect it. And once I perfected it, it was like, oh, OK. This is what I'm supposed to be doing. When you took that stage, love? When did I? First time. The very first time that I got on stage to do anything creative, it was probably, you know, outside of school shit. I'm talking about, like, as an adult, I started off doing improv with this improv troupe. And in between our sets, like, while they was, you know, switching out for the games or whatever, somebody got to go out there and talk some shit, at least to the games that set up. So I used to take those little spots and just go out and just keep the crowd warmed up and just keep talking shit. So what ended up happening is between those sets after, you know, a season of doing that. I actually talked to the dude who owned the club and that was like, I let him get. He let me get the stage by myself and I threw my first show completely by myself and went on there and it's like I did the show and that feeling, like I said, it just that first little time it just consumed my life and it just changed everything. It's just I was just like fighting to get back on stage. But, you know, it was just one of those things where it took a while to come into. But that should change everything. That first time, that first laugh, that feeling of you're just doing five minutes on stage, but this shit had you up all night. You can't go to bed. It's adrenaline still pumping. Like I still get that feeling every time it's a show day. Did y'all know each other in those comedy clubs? When y'all was? I knew Chico first. I knew college, I was a fan. Okay. Did y'all interact then or y'all? Well, I didn't, I was already, I was a fan of him. And I didn't know he fuck with my comedy until I saw a little clip on Vine. Somebody asked him and he said my name as soon as he did it, exactly. As soon as he said that shit, I put, I pulled up on him as soon as I saw it. Cause I knew the guys that was managing him. And they was like, man, DC, he'll be down here this evening. I'm pulling up, I fuck with that young dude. Cause I used to watch all these, he used to get on there and do like morning motivation shit back when he was smoking blunts. He would get on there every morning and smoke a blunt. Say a little, you know, have positive, have funny shit. So I always fucked with him on that. I still ask him now why he don't do that shit. There's a lot of shit. I became a fan of him through his social media work. But I knew Chico from actually pulling up them your partners. I know that nigga, who that nigga? I fucked with them. All right. So we all partners and shit like that. So it all started organically of us organically fucking with each other's style and human and shit like that. Who's idea was the 85 South Shore? I remember Carlos hitting me saying he wanted to start a podcast. And I feel like he said DC was going to be a part of it. Most definitely. But like it started, we didn't, I didn't know how to formulate the shit. Like me and Chad and Joe and Kat and shit, I think Ryan, we were trying to find the sauce to put this shit together. Like we had DJ Mars, some cute little chick who was just so lively off camera. Like she'll be perfect. Man, we turned the camera on. She turned the stone. Great goggles. That was the first iteration he fucked up. Like she literally couldn't formulate a sentence. She couldn't move. We were shooting like a, what they call air techs. We were shooting the radio show. Cause we didn't know what a podcast was. And we tried to go all around the city just to get somebody local to pick it up. And they wasn't really feeling it. So that's when Los was saying, he kept saying the word podcast. So we had to go Google what an actual podcast was. And that's still to this day. That's why I always be like, this podcast is for people who don't know about it. Cause we was like, getting that radio wasn't a thing too, but we didn't really understand what that was either. So we just started following whatever a podcast was. And then in between those couple of little, you know, studio session, that's when that shit came out that he said. And then we linked up one day in December, right at the end of December, we recorded a couple of episodes and then we dropped that shit on Christmas 2015 and just been on it ever since. It was just UNDC at the time. At first, cause she go to live in North Carolina. I mean, I don't live in Atlanta, but I was calling in Atlanta. I was calling in like talking shit, like, oh, you niggas just think you gonna start some shit without me. I was calling in like, y'all niggas better tell me where the studio is. So I was just calling in from where I was at. You know what I mean? Making sure that, you know what I mean? Just to ingratiate myself with what was going on, but also just to, you know, bring a different element to, you know, what was going on. Cause every time they would record, I would call and cuss them out. And be like, man, we can do that, you know what I mean? Cause they'll tell you anytime I'm not on camera doing any work, you pull up at my house, I'm probably watching media. I'll just, that's all I fucking do. Is just watch media, good shit, bad shit. I remember I used to watch a lot of Tax Stone, Lloyd Sear, Rude Jude, Brilliant Idiots, shit, Breakfast Club. Always was, I just liked to listen to shit. Like I used to be in Chico for the longest before we got to this level of our career. We prefer to drive to shows. We would do the show and just, you know, anything under six hours. You can drive eight hours. Yeah, anything at six to eight hours, we going home right after that show. So it was always like a need to, yeah, it was like people would offer us flights and be like, no, we driving. Cause we know soon as we get off this stage at 10 o'clock, we hit it straight back to the crib. Or whatever time it is, we might chop it up for an hour or so, but we driving. And it's like, you can only listen to so much music. So that's when I started really getting heavy onto the media and the podcast and the shit like that. I wanted to ask y'all about that cause coming from a stand up background, what made y'all, you know, know y'all need to get into media? How did you know like that, this was the platform that would take y'all to another level? A podcast or something in the audio space? Well, I know when we first started what stuck out, Carlos was like, just, just, just, it's a podcast. And everybody was like, what's a podcast? You know, it's like radio. It's like undetected radio. It's uncensored radio. It's range. It's just like radio, but we got the free range to say what I'm and do whatever you like. You can practice on your timing, your punches, and you're constantly talking. Just getting used to hearing your voice on the mic. I knew it. I never, once I started, now I believe in whatever I say, I ain't scared to say it. And it came from this podcast. So I'm like, nigga, even on stage to this day, if I wanna say it, I'm gonna say it because I've been trained and conditioning myself from this podcast. And we never knew what a podcast was. You know what I'm saying? And they have three comedians to do radio cause it's technically radio. It's kind of like I run it, but it's a beautiful thing at the same time. Yeah, it'd be too much to be a radio show. They have three comedians. We keep it, and it's uncensored, and we can really say what the fuck we've... Go ahead. Oh, okay. Oh, no, it's a podcast. I'll make sure they breath clear, my bad. But we can really say what we wanna say, but also formulate and condition our craft at the same time. And it also got me better on stage. How did you know love? How did I know? This is gonna be the platform to take y'all to another level. Because it was there. It was already there. We just had to fine tune it and find the right elements to do it. Because even like you said, even the shit we did in the beginning wasn't terrible. It just wasn't, it wasn't packaged, right? We didn't have the right elements together. And I was like, I don't have to go find nobody. I can bring my friends in here. I know guys who will be perfect for this. Like just by the conversations that we have off camera, the shit that we talk about, the scenarios that like we missing shows or pulling up late, you know, there's so much shit that goes with that. So I just knew that once we got the right people with the right flow, right timing, it was gonna take off. Did it kind of formulate itself? Because like you said Chico was calling in. Everything came in. We never like denied nothing. We allow everything to play out and what it was. And we was just like, accepted to like just what it is. This, okay, we're gonna rock with this. This what's going on. We're gonna rock with this. All right, bet. We gonna run with that. And we gonna formulate that. And before you know it, we all look at each other and we're like, this is the one. You see it? Yeah, this is the one. Yeah, I feel good about this. I just feel great. Yeah, I remember me and Chad had that conversation. I remember where we was at, but we had just done, did some shows somewhere, one in one's where we still was getting paid in paper bags and shit. And you know, me and Chad was talking to him after the show and was like, man, this the formula right here. This it. How do you know Chad? Man, to be real, I used to work for Steve Harvey. So I told him that was like a, he never told nobody. That was like a, that was like a masterclass in how to leverage your talent and build a bunch of business around it. So what I would tell them was, you know, it's not that, you know, you can argue your favorite comedians from the nineties all day. But what Steve did was he took the business route first and then he leveraged the Steve Harvey radio network to sell television, to sell books, to sell audio, to sell our shows, making you sell bacon at one point. And then he would tell us all the time, Steve Harvey, the comedian, the business conversations changed once he became Steve Harvey, the co-founder of Steve Harvey, the executive producer. So even when we built this business, we all came in as co-founders, all came in as executive producers and partners. So it was just a different conversation. It just opens up different doors. So we knew if we leveraged the podcast as the rocket ship, it'll put us up here and we can leverage that for all the other opportunities that we can create from there. See, that's a full circle joint, though, because it's like, can you imagine like, one of my closest partners work with one of the biggest talents in my field. And he's been over there doing big business for them, closing deals and all of that shit. So it's like, we ain't on that level, but we going to that level. So we could meet in the middle and do business. You got the experience of this big shit, but let's build our own shit. It ain't gonna be as complicated or as complex, but eventually we can have an empire too. And he's, just speaking to Steve in particular, he's somebody who has gave us that ability to be able to know that what we're doing is on that level because it's no different than you. You don't have to let a person know it. Opportunity don't always come with a check. Sometime it just comes with, hey, man, I see you. You know what I mean? It's just being in that vantage point of certain people. And once we got that confirmation throughout time, it's been different confirmations, but just this past time that we went to Steve's radio show and he was like, man, y'all doing some shit. And I'm talking about it with all of these different people, all of these legendary comedians. And we like, man, we don't know how them niggas is doing this shit. And they wanted to try. And they wanted to, they always wanted to do it and they always wanted to try, but it's the same that it goes from, man, what them niggas doing to, I don't know what them niggas doing. Like that's a hell of a transition because those same people that'll, and he's honest enough to tell us that, man, I ain't think this shit was gonna work when y'all first started doing it. So now it's like, man, how do y'all do it? To get to that point, that transition, that transitional period, like that's something that lets us know that, like I said, we're doing some shit that's never been done before. And to pick back up off what Chico said, is back then it was more so me, me, me, my, my, my, my. My shine, my shine. Niggas scared that there's somebody else who's a great comedian that come take the people who fought, because at that time, we had no social media because who could follow me and then follow you. Well, he could follow anybody he liked, but everybody that's in that crowd, these mom people that I brought up, that's how they were looking at me, even in my month. Now it's to the point where it's like, we don't care about that. We all know that everybody got their special powers, but this is a unit thing. And it feels great when you can do this and be this powerful with your friends and with your brothers. And it's like, yeah, everybody got their own special unique power skills, but it's like, Niggas, it's the principle that we do in it together is always gonna be better than what we do by ourselves. I watch y'all and y'all do it so effortlessly with no ego whatsoever when y'all do have disagreements out of y'all hands. We don't have no disagreements like that. It'd be, you know, just little petty disagreements like, man, that is my lighter, but we ain't never had no fallout. Like, man, y'all cut that shit out. Right, right. It's never no falling out. But you know, we brothers, we brothers, we grown men, it's testosterone, but it's never no physical altercation. It's, I don't understand it. Help me understand it, how you understand it. And then we sit down as a group and as a unit and be like, look, this what's going on? I was like, all right, all right, all right, well, how about this? How about this? How you feel? Okay, look, we'll do it like this so you can feel good. Just to show you, bro, we wanna make sure everybody is comfortable at all time because we, first of all, we're not breaking up. I don't give a, 2023, 2085, we gonna still be doing this. We're not going nowhere. It's never gonna be a time where somebody gonna get too big and it won't be the 85 side. 2085, y'all should make all y'all money for real. I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Ain't no done 85-side when I do 85-side. I am 111 years old. But you know, those types of conversations is different. You know, I always say, you know, coming from the environment that I come from, you can tell who really fuck with each other, who don't, you know what I mean? Some people, I gotta say, I told Chico, before we recorded any fucking thing, I said, bro, if we do anything, it's gonna work. He said, why? I said, because in this industry, in the comedy world, there ain't three people that you can find that authentically fuck with each other outside of some money. I told him that. Yeah, he definitely did. And that's when you think about it from that perspective, coming from the type of environments that we come from, you know when niggas fuck with you and when you don't, some motherfuckers just sitting around waiting to have a problem and waiting to beef and waiting to say something disrespectful. That's not the element amongst us. We love each other. So if it's anything that we don't agree upon, it's something that happens right then, right there, and we are able to sit down, no matter if we gotta sit down for three and a half hours and talk about it. We gonna do that, you know what I'm saying? And it's not gonna be something that, and we're not the type of people that are going to express outside, inside issues outside. Some shit stay in the house, you know what I mean? Some things don't go outside the door. No matter how we can get, we can be yelling at each other about some shit or mad about some shit amongst each other, but you ain't gonna know about it because it's our business, because that's love. But if we ain't really fuck with each other, then you'll see them all fucking, yeah man, you all ain't know, man. Niggas ain't taking me and the shit, you know you're taking me and the love, you're mad, but you know, man. The great part about it, and I just thought about this when you spoke, to be honest, if you even look at our company, it's rarely that everybody's from the same spot. We got a group of people that's from different states. He's from Mississippi, he's from DC. I'm from Atlanta, from New Orleans, from California. We ain't growing up with each other. We trust each other. That's the major point. Not only do we trust each other, we trust each other's vision. We trust each other's dreams because you may have a vision that can impact every last one of our vision. That's really where the 85 South show really branched from. It came from somebody having a vision and once we added to the vision, now we saw what he see or saw what they see. Now let's add what we see. So that's all the 85 South doing. It's a collective of a lot of different people that's added vision to one main vision. And we shared a will. Now look at y'all, man, it's like Wu-Tang, right? Because it ain't just the three of y'all. You got Clayton English, you got Nav Green, you got Money Bag, Mopham. Poor minds. Poor minds. Was that the initial vision to bring all of those people in? Yes, because all those people that you named, they bring something to the table that we don't bring. Like everybody, like you said, everybody got their own weapons, their own talents and their individuals. So it's like we fans, too. We still love this entertainment industry. It's still new to us. It's still exciting. So to see these people come up and just know that, yeah, come on, do this. We ain't got to do it. We can't take credit for nobody telling us. All we can do is put you on this platform in front of these 85% that love us. If they love us and we love you, they gonna love you, too. I mean, we didn't know what the thing is. We didn't mean doing that from the jump. Like that's something that even if you look at me coming out of when I started in North Carolina with the freestyle funny comedy show, the improv troupe I started with, like all of them, except for one of my partners that got on Wild'n Out because of what we did in that environment. Oh, yeah, be that Darren. Be that Darren. Burt, you know, all of them were cast members because, you know, they got to a point where they understood that, okay, if I show up and do what it is that I know I can do, I know that when he's there, he's doing everything he's supposed to do to make the environment curated for somebody like me. And he not gonna stand in the way and be like, ah, nigga, it's my shine. You know what I'm saying? So we've always been that way. Like in everything that we do, all of our partners have at least got an audition if not been on the show because of what we've done. This is the first opportunity that we got. And like you said, most motherfuckers is like, nigga, my time to shine. You never stand behind me and then, you know what I mean? But we've never been like that. So once we created our own platform, that's who we are anyway. Come on, Slim. Come on, all the way. Do your thing. Please do your thing. Do your thing. Do some butt. Chad, how do you keep all that together, man? I wish I could take a lot of credit. We gotta, we pay some 25 plus people, you know? So we got a whole crew of whole staff that's running day to day and checking in. I think keeping it together is just making sure we set the tone and the presidents of our expectation. I called Chad about 10 times. Yeah, literally. Chico got a thousand ideas. Fly checking on money every other day. And Los want to talk 10 times a day. Ryan's calling. I don't know how he make it seem like I'm checking on the money. I'm here for with the money. I'm facilitating how it's going, all right? You know, people that fly because of Chad about his money. No, no, no. About the money, the company money. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah. But keeping it together is really not hard because I'm dealing with people that want to be the best version of themselves every day. So I don't really get the opportunity to not be inspired by that or not have a precedent that's already set. So it's not hard. And plus I love this, man. It's like, I actually, I love business. Like I'm a nerf business, dog. I'm not like somebody that's frustrated about waking up at six to get the job done. You know, I enjoy it. Let's talk about some of the nerd shit for the next generation of personalities watching, right? Like now y'all started with audio and video or just audio? Just audio first. Just audio first. Just audio first. Audio. Because you know, that's two totally different audiences. You might, the video may do a million but the audio may do six because it's more like there are places where there are certain pockets of, you know, this market that people don't have the opportunity to sit down and literally watch this shit. They would work in a warehouse or they drive around trucks or listen to this shit all day on a loop. You know what I mean? So once we figured out that that these are two totally different markets, we had to do both. So when y'all decided to start saying, you know what, let's shoot the trap. Instead of just putting it out audio wild, let's listen. It might have been like a year later. Only because Fly's comedy is so physical that you have to... See it. Yeah, you have to experience it differently. And then his comedy has Lose and Chico jumping in the whole another thing. So, and then I, you know, I was in the nineties, you watch Oprah and you're like, it's people on the couch talking, you know, so we just created our version of that. And it also helped me because when we was doing the podcast and Lose know how to talk. Yeah. He ain't really got to do too much. He's like, he's funny, but I'm like, damn, I don't talk how he talk. And I can't try to do what he does because he do what he does. So online, the audio may sound like, well, who the hell the loud niggas doing now? But if you would have saw me, you would have understood what I was doing. So it kind of helped me even be better as a performer and the podcast also helped me to be able to formulate and talk my joke out before I even do an action. Man, that's interesting. DC said that. Cause I remember when I, when I used to have DC on uncommon sense, that's what the execs used to say. We don't understand him. We don't understand what he's saying. And I used to be like, yo, 66% of all black people live in the South. Trust me, they're going to understand the words that are coming out of his mouth. And I never understood that because I've been in the South so long. So when I started going to different places and they like, huh? It wouldn't, it didn't offend me, but I used to be like, what you hunt me for? If you heard what the fuck I just said, they like, bro, we ain't heard now correct word or grammar came out your goddamn mouth. And that's when I had to learn like, I need to know how to annunciate. Talk. Annunciate. Huh? Let me say it. Annunciate. I knew what he meant. I knew what he meant. Exactly. That's the point that I was making. It's just the inflection, you know what I mean? Like I said it wrong, but I said it right because of my speech. I remember Joey I.E., man, Joey I used to work it up. I forgot what they were with Joey I.E. was that. But I remember one time I was shopping this artist from South Carolina, he said to me, can he talk? I said, what do you mean can he talk? He said, can he talk? Like how T.I. can talk? Right. No, he cannot. No, don't even compare nobody to him. But I mean, you yourself said you had, you had to overcome that coming from South Carolina amongst corner and getting on the radio. And then it was different back then because it was just the voice, you know what I mean? You was back in the Michael Bay's dinner and all that when it was straight radio. So like, you know, having to overcome whatever those things are, you know what I mean? We all went through that. Like when we first got on it while I'm out there, it was like, well, what do you guys do? Like what do you, what can we expect from you? What do y'all do? What do you guys do? Like what is you, what are you known for? It was like, man, turn the cameras on. Like I show you what I do, but just getting somebody to understand it and respect it enough to give you that shot. Now you got to take advantage of it when you get it, but people never gonna understand. I'm sure the people in Netflix was like, what is this? As they were watching it and screening it, like, what is this, what is this, what is this? I don't get it. I don't understand it. I mean, it looks good. This should mean a shot well, but what is it? And now it's number one and they don't care what it is at that point. All you need is the opportunity. Like give me the opportunity. It's like what Katie say about basketball. Like, mom, you skinny, you're so small, man. Give me the ball, blow the whistle and I'll show you what I do. Because you know why they don't have to try to persuade people to like us. They didn't understand. We're trying to persuade people that it's actually people who rock with us. And they like, well, we don't understand. And now when you see it, they go number one, it's like you don't have to understand because in your line of work, you never out there negotiating. You just want to know how much they need to go number one again. A lot. That's right. And it's so funny, it's because it's like, this is our company and this is our business. But even if we drop the episode and that shit did, one view, so the fuck what? Like we're not invested to the point where this shit can break our heart. Like this is fun. This is what, we put this together. This is, it's not necessarily a hobby, but this is not the end of us by any means. This is, this is one 99th of the talents that we have. I can't start it. You get what I'm saying? It's just, that's the best thing to me about it is that I know that we can't fail. All right, let's take a break from this great conversation with the 85 South Show to talk about Talkspace. Do you think seeing a therapist or psychiatrist would be helpful, but you don't have the time to actually find one and meet with them or afford them, try Talkspace. By doing everything online, Talkspace has made getting to help you want easy, accessible and affordable and Talkspace takes most insurance. At Talkspace.com you can sign up online to get a personalized match with a therapist who's right for you, typically within 48 hours. It's incredibly convenient to have virtual sessions with your licensed therapists from the comfort of your home. Talkspace lets you send messages to your therapist anytime and they reply so you don't have to wait for your next season. You send messages to your therapist anytime and they reply so you don't have to wait for your next session. Talkspace can help with any specific challenges you might be facing. It's the number one online therapy platform with licensed therapists with more than 150 areas of specialization, including anxiety, depression, substance abuse, relationship issues and much more. Talkspace is secure and private using the latest end-to-end bank grade encryption technology and complies with the latest HIPAA regulations. Talkspace is affordable and unlike many online therapy providers, Talkspace is in network with most major insurers. If your plan covers Talkspace, you'll only pay a co-pay typically around $25. As a listener of this podcast, you'll get $100 off of your first month with Talkspace when you go to Talkspace.com slash idiots. To match with a licensed therapist today, go to Talkspace.com slash idiots to get $100 off your first month and show your support for the show that's Talkspace.com slash idiots. The Brilliant Idiots this week is also brought to you by Most In Cause, man. Thank you, Most In Cause, for always supporting the Brilliant Idiots. You do know summer is when you get to be your real self, so cool off with the only spiked lemonade that has real fruit flavor. Simply spiked. Simply spiked lemonade's ready to drink. Spiked lemonade's broke the internet when they dropped four bold refreshing flavors last summer. Get real with signature lemonade, strawberry lemonade, blueberry lemonade and watermelon lemonade, all with the taste of real fruit juice. And by popular demand, four fan favorite peach flavors are now also part of the Simply Spiked family. Get juicy with signature peach, strawberry peach, kiwi peach and mango peach, okay? All flavors of Simply Spiked are crafted with 5% ABB and 5% real fruit juice squeezed and concentrated. Summer's getting juicy. Go to drinksimplyspiked.com slash idiots to find out how to get your hands on Simply Spiked Lemonade and new Simply Spiked Peach that's drinksimplyspiked.com slash idiots, okay? Flavored beer, naturally flavored with other natural flavors, SimplySpiked.com. Simply Spiked Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, celebrate responsibly. Simply Spiked is a trademark of the Simply Orange Juice Company. Now let's get back to the show. Church announcements, real quick, man. I don't wanna tell y'all, make sure you go to theandruesshow.com to see where Andrew Showtres is gonna be. Andrew Showtres has launched his tour. He's selling out everywhere and we wanna see you in some of these arenas that Showtres is selling out. So make sure you go to theandruesshowtres.com to see where Andrew Showtres is gonna be. I wanna tell y'all to make sure to go get your tickets for the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, man. We had the grand opening last weekend. It was an amazing event. It officially opened to the public on June 27th, this past Tuesday and it's built on Gatsons Wharf. Gatsons Wharf is where they say, I can't remember the exact number but it's like 50% of all enslaved. I think it's, oh, 48.1% of all enslaved Africans came through Gatsons Wharf. So if you shake your family tree from South Carolina, probably gonna fall out, man. So go home and go to the International African American Museum. You can go get your tickets at theiam.com website, okay? I'm doing some real special things there before the year is over and I can't wait to talk to you about them. And I also wanna tell you to make sure you go out there and pre-order Invisible Generals, okay? That is one of the latest releases coming out on my book in print, Black Privilege, publishing through Simon and Schuster. It's by my guide, Doug Melville. Salute to Doug Melville. Invisible Generals is the amazing true story of America's first black generals, Benjamin O. Davis, senior and junior, a father and son who helped integrate the American military and create the famous Tuskegee Airmen, man. So you can go pre-order that everywhere you buy books right now. Now let's get back into our conversation with the 85 South Show. When y'all started doing video, how fast did things take off? Cause I feel like everything's shifting once y'all started putting the video up. Man, what video did was, well on the business side, we said on the production side, it forced us to be better producers cause what we would do is just cut the mics on and they saw talented. We not really doing that. So on the production side, now you're starting to figure out what's going on in the world so you can start to feed them some stuff to help them out. Now you're starting to bring on different guests that can help that you know can integrate into the show properly. And then, you know, on the post-production side, now you're learning programming on what shows should come out on that you can hold on to this evergreen or what shows should come out because Trump said something crazy or whatever happened crazy into the world. So video made us a better production company. It didn't really take off real until we started posting the live shows which maybe was three or four years later. And like I said, that's still a whole separate element of the show. Once the live podcast was doing better video-wise than the live shows we started doing. Man, that happened to us. The live shows went crazy. Once we went live and did the shows that way, it was like, I mean, I think it was because that element of the part that people have never seen before, it was like, what is this? You became intrigued by it. Because you know in comedy, you know, that routine you might have worked on for a year, once it leaks, you gotta start from scratch again. You may gotta hit the comedy clubs again, but they were going off the top of the head and it was like premium comedy every single time. People was tuning in. We would tell people, we've been putting out Netflix specials forever. Forever. It still is. We got Netflix specials on YouTube right now. Yeah. And we would shoot them at the highest value that we could afford to shoot. So yeah, it was like when it was dropping mixtapes, we was dropping specials, you know? That's how we kind of looked at it. And that's where the rocket ship came from. I know the video, the video, so the audio started all kind of slow and the video came out, the video took off. The live show is what took everything. The audience went crazy, but we read, I don't want to say we read comments. We like to see what our feedback is. And they like, man, I wish y'all would come here and I wish y'all would come there. And I remember the first time they were like, y'all want to go live? I was like, because I'm still trying to be a comedian. And I'm like, now you want me to go up there? What's, you want me to go up there with motherfuckers? I gotta be a comedian on stage. But I'm like, okay, I did theater and I've been on stage with people, but I've never been a comedian amongst other comedians besides acting with other actors. So it's like, okay, this is gonna be challenging. And I like challenging. So I was like, I'm still trying to learn to be a comedian, but how can I be a good comedian amongst other comedians that's already solidified? So once we started doing it and people started coming, I was like, this could be your perfect way for you to just be yourself. Depression's not on you, depression's not on them. It's a collective. All you got to do is just feel in whatever you think dry. And I know that he doing the same. Wherever he come in, I said, that's where he good at. That's where he good at. So you just got to find out where you good at. And my part was to sit there and say, okay, I don't grade that physical. I just be the physical guy. You know what I'm saying? But it's never a point where we feel like we done, bro. Cause we still finding out new shit every time we hit the stage. That's why I said, like a few years ago, we partnered with y'all at Black Effect. But just for the audio, did you see a difference in how the podcast was received? Once the audio started taking off, once the audio numbers started matching the video numbers, did y'all see a difference? Yeah, we definitely see a difference in the crowd, in the audience. You can look around at the shows and see the difference that it made. You know what I'm saying? Now it ain't just, oh, this is our spot. Well, we good over here. It's like we universally good. And every place that we haven't been, they're waiting on. So it's like, how do we do this? How are we gonna go everywhere? And definitely being a part of Black Effect and that family and that group of talent, y'all got access to people who, like you said, who may not be familiar with what's going on in the heart of the deep, dirty South. They might've called or listened to the Tesla and all. You know what I mean? And then 85 might've snuck in there and they left it on and it was like, I like that. You gave us, like we have our own platform but y'all got a big platform over there also. You don't want one of the biggest shows shit in America. The biggest show. Every morning. So it's like, just to have that co-sign and for you to bring us into y'all world, definitely had an impact on what we do. I showed you and chat earlier, like since the Netflix special came out, y'all numbers like tripled for the week. Like y'all putting on just the podcast audio. Tripled for the week. I'll tell you, like we never not valued audio. It's just that we didn't understand the value of it, if that makes sense. And because when you're growing a company, you got to put all your effort to what's making the most money. So if touring and a live show is making all the money for three, four years. That's the baby. Yeah, so you just focus here. So what is done is the relationship with y'all, we've hired more audio people. Now we have people that are mixing the master and then post-reduction stuff that you just cracked a mic and you, you know, dropping in the feed and it's all good. We put that much reinvestment back into audio. I'll say that. Knowing that. Y'all did something that was so smart, man. I think it's genius because I keep telling folks you can't solely rely on YouTube. And you can't turn YouTube into a real business. You know what I mean? Because you don't own it. Because it's at their discretion. They could flag your videos. They could not pay you. But that's the part that was so frustrating to me though. It's like, if this video was so bad and it's flagged and it's not monetized, why y'all just didn't take it down? Right. But it's just like, now I guess with this whole ad revenue thing, it's like people are asking the same questions. It's like, you want to demonetize it, but you see these views is ran up. Somebody got paid. That's right. And they're using the numbers to go get some more money. And it's really going to straining the hell out of these creators too. Because it's like, you took your first big YouTube check and you invested in some equipment. And now them checks, you're thinking this is going to be another 50, 60, 70. And then your October payout wasn't but $7,000. Now you upside down. You get what I'm saying? So just to have that platform and to own it and to be independent and to know that none of that shit is going to happen, we're going to be monetized either or way, we're good. Y'all took your content off YouTube. I want to pull up one of those things you was referencing. You was referencing. They reported this week in the Wall Street Journal. Let me pull it up. It says YouTube violated their own terms of their ads. 80% of the ads YouTube serves across the web have violated their own terms of service and are therefore subject to refunds. The Google ads going to have to pay out billions of dollars in YouTube ads. And then there was another one that said YouTube created, revenue down up to 90%. Something is definitely off. So you can't rely on YouTube to be a business. But what y'all did was take your video content off YouTube and start y'all on. You had to tell you, we didn't even even speak to like no YouTube reps until we made the announcement that we're going with the ads. Then they sent a whole team down and tried to, you know, oh, this won't happen to you guys. We didn't know that you were doing these numbers. And we're so glad to have you on our team. OK, we're still not rocking with y'all. Hold on, speak to that. So hold up, wait a minute. What y'all called YouTube customer services? No, they called us. Listen, bro, for two to three years, it was we would sit down every couple months. Well, we need to put out more content. We need short form because they come up with new rules for YouTube every time. And bro, at one point, I remember Fly was like, bro, we giving them too much. Like it doesn't matter. So we started diving back into the analytics and you could have a great month, especially during the holiday season from October all the way to January. Rocketship numbers, you thinking this is normal. But come March, April, May, you're like, bro, what are we doing? And nothing has changed as far as your output. To the point where we be like, man, just y'all can head of YouTube. Like it's not even, there's no rhyme or reason. So we finally, especially during the pandemic, we put our heads around launching our own platform. As soon as we launched that platform, YouTube reaches out to us. And we started some conversations thinking, well, everything's gonna be good. Maybe we'll put regular content over here and premium content over there. Man, three months later, still same stuff. So eventually, I tell people, there's value in YouTube, but the value you can't, what you just said, you can't build a core business model around. There's no, you can't, there's no model you can create because you really have no idea how much money you bought. Not unless you miss the beast of somebody. Yeah, you see me don't even really know. Yeah, I mean, you never really know, you know what I mean? They can't, you can't determine what it is they determine you get paid, you know what I'm saying? And that's one of the difficult things about any platform that you're not in control of is like, well, what do you get? Well, you get what we get you, you know what I'm saying? And, you know, if we decide to give you a little bit more or a little bit less, that's what you get, you know what I'm saying? But when you able to, you know, be able to see the numbers, you able to, you know, understand from a perspective it makes it even easier to go back and have those conversations with the big platforms or the Netflixers and the YouTube is like, okay, we already have an understanding of what these numbers are and how these people are affected by the content that we're putting out based on these numbers. What can you offer us? It don't, it changes the meeting if you will, you don't go in like, you know what I mean? What can we do for you? Then once you find out that they know how to manipulate these numbers, however they wanna manipulate it, that's crazy. Cause like you said, there ain't no rhyme or reason or you can't sit there and come up with a formula and say, I'm gonna drop a video every day for 30 days, that's 30 videos a month. So I should make this, it just don't work like that. And just give you the money and you be happy here and you like, all right, but you ain't questioning nothing. You like, how did y'all come up with this number? Nobody cares, it's like streaming service. Like the music game, come on, man. You gotta get almost 30,000 streams, just get five dollars. So who really getting all the money before you get your five dollars? That's right. I've been on call with their experts and their experts. There's only so much answer they can do until they start giving generic information. And at that point, I'm like, they don't even give you the information, you know? So at that point, how much more investment are we gonna make into this platform? So what do y'all use YouTube for? Distribution and promotion, yeah. Yeah, we still have a lot. What everybody else use it for? We still got a big fan base over there that just refuses to, you know, subscribe and support. It just takes time, you know what I mean? You get something for free and then it don't matter if you come back charging a dollar for it, a dollar, you know what I mean? So, you know, hey, huh, like exactly. Like, so if we continue to be in this Netflix, I think it's gonna be a big, you know, peace in getting those YouTube people to subscribe because once you get to a platform like Netflix and people start talking about something, you'd be like, hold, wait a minute, motherfucker, I've been, you're talking to me about some shit I've been knew about, what did you know about this? And then you're like, you know what? Fuck, I'm out to, I'm gonna pay that little 899 so I don't miss out on nothing no more because these niggas playing with me like I ain't been down with these motherfuckers for the last six, seven years. Can you imagine that though? We get two and a half million people to go subscribe to our app. Yeah. How many y'all got now? We don't want to talk about it because we don't want nobody trying to add anything. Man, niggas be unsubscribing. Oh shit, y'all need my 8 dollar. So y'all be putting clips on YouTube. Yeah, well, we put shows. We still put shows, we'll put one studio show that's an hour long on the platform but we also have advertising, video advertising partnerships where they may want integrated marketing on a product placement or a 30 second read but now as we are... And we did a 80 vibe. Oh yeah, and we did 80 vibe. New shows through there as well just to get like an idea of what people will respond to but like New Talent, like Nav has a show that we partner with him, a sports show on Broken Play that we put through YouTube because you still want to take advantage of... It's a digital billboard. You're using the bill shit up. But we don't have like core financial... Dependence. Yeah, yeah, it just is what it is. When y'all started the channel 85, a lot of people be scared to put their content behind a paywall because they don't know if they'll lose their audience or people to pay for it. Did y'all feel that way? No, no, no, because we have a community. I don't even really like to say fans because I tell people in business, the hardest part in business, especially in our age, is getting somebody to transact. So if you can get them to buy merchandise or subscribe to a newsletter or buy a ticket or purchase behind a paywall, this is your real community. So those 2.5 million or 10 million followers you're gonna be watching. That's not real. People that really transact with you are the people you want to build. And that's the beauty of what we do. Like when Lowe said the Avengers, like that's real because you look at the Avengers, you got Iron Man and Thor and all these people that they had their own movie. But when they're the Avengers, they're the Avengers. And it's the same thing about us individually. We go and do a comedy club in the weekend and sale half of many tickets. That's a section in one of these arenas we're doing now. You know what I mean? So when we come together, it's like everybody that, you know, it no matter who they like, you know what I'm saying? You like all of us together. But if you like one of us individually, you're not gonna say I'm not going to see Thor because Iron Man is, you know what I mean? You're not gonna do that. You're gonna go see both of them. I love it. I love one more. Like, man, she go the funniest one. DC the funniest one. I've been like, I agree. I want to be around motherfuckers like, they make me legs. Exactly. These are my top two niggas. They my pannas. Yeah, you're going to, nigga, I know. I knew before you knew. Exactly. Y'all going to make it to the point where comedian's going to have to click up. So what are the keys to keeping a healthy brotherhood throughout all of the business? Key God first, you know what I'm saying? Key God first and knowing that, like you say, man, respecting each other's value and respecting each other's understanding. And you know, because this is how it started. It never was a starter of us coming together and be like, let's put all our ideas together and we just created it. It was just like, okay, you want to do that? I rock with you. Okay, but look, I want to add this too. You rock with it. Bad. What about you? Oh, this is what you want to do? I rock with it. We're never denying anything or any suggestion that anybody brings to the table, bro. And I feel like we don't have a blueprint of how a successful business starts. And how do we prolong it and keep it going? So we're learning every day through the experiences. We're learning every day from our ups and downs and our trials, but at the end of the day, we key God first and we like, look, bro, we're hearing it from the people that hasn't been done before. So we got something. Right. How long do we want it? All right, we hit him. How long do we want to do this? Forever, forever, forever. So we got to keep that forever energy. It's been dope just trying to see how much, how many other things we can run through our brand and our business, you know what I'm saying? Like, of course it's the live shows, it's the merch, it's the brand, it's the studio, but it's like, how much other shit can we put under this umbrella? Are we going to be the only ones that benefit off of our brand? No, we're going to branch out and we're going to help build out the poor mindset and help them build their core audience and find a place for Nav and his show. And we're going to try a whole bunch of different things. They might not all work, but we're going to have them under our own terms and we're going to find out the best way that works for us. Motherfucker clean. Y'all keep saying the Avengers. Clayton was one on the Avengers. Clayton was on that. Yeah, you know, it's really ego control. Man, everybody got their ego in control. You know it's not about you and being able to- People see the bigger picture. Yeah, you know what I mean? It's like, you know, if you have, I think that's what hindered the ones before us. Everybody's ego was so, I got to be, I got to have this like, you know what I mean? I give you a perfect example, bro. Look at Joe. Joe just laid out chilling. Yeah, weed in his pocket and grew his hell. His beard is big. He don't got to care in the fucking world. He might stay in New York two, three weeks after this. Like that's when it started hitting me. When I said this somewhere the other day, it was like, when you start seeing your friends, quit their job and live their dreams, they don't have to go do shit else, that's when you know you're making strides. Yeah, when we was out to eat one night, I saw Nav, Nav was eating his food. Nav said, hey man, anytime Chico don't show up, just let me know. He was like, check with something silly. When we did the black effect thing. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, the podcast. Oh yeah, all the way, yeah. Y'all ain't fucking me, fuck y'all. I'm about to say it, why that nigga picked me. If you ain't called me nigga, I'm like, let me show up, let me know. They had shows. They had shows, yeah. Well, let me decline, motherfucker. Yeah, exactly, yeah. I probably couldn't decline, that's all that came on me. See, if y'all a man do you like that, this nigga would do you like that. He'd look out for you, but he also do you like that. No, we reached out to 85,000, you know what I mean? No, no, you know what, when somebody from 85,000, we all win. And then it ain't just you, Dolly, cussed me out about this shit. Every time I miss anything that's black, she'd be like, nigga, I'm like, yes ma'am, I just, you know, cause you already know with her, like we'd have been locked in for so long, she gonna call me directly and cuss me out. And there ain't gonna be no business call. It's gonna, like y'all know the business, Dolly. Like I know the real Dolly. I love that too, about how you built the black effects too, cause you went and grabbed Rachel and the Dolly and it's like, bro, we knew how dope they were when we first started working with them. And for you to have to come and recognize, like y'all got way more talent and way more skills than what y'all, they're using y'all for. So I, I respect it and I commend it. I don't want it to smudge y'all. I remember when Rachel was Candida's secretary 12 years ago. And Dolly was Nick's secretary. Yeah, Dolly's assistant, word on. I used to sit in the edit bay with them back in the day, but you could just see it, you know when a, same thing you probably saw in Chad, like you know Chad is executive level. Bro, I didn't know it first. You didn't know it first. You see how you just, that's all You used to try to sell sneakers together and sell cell phones and I ain't really sell nothing, dawg. Just let me in. Cause this nigga don't give a fuck about nothing, bro. Like this nigga, like you know how a cat is just in disinterested with everything. Like you can't impress no cat. Like it don't matter what's going on. This nigga be sitting there, he didn't give a flying fuck. Like, bro, yeah, bro, we do it. Yeah, good job, good job. What you was doing with Steve when I met you, Chad? Photography, right? Yeah, I was- Don't fuck you. Nah, I worked hard when I worked with Steve. That's why I got fired. I was like overly ambitious. But me and Joe ran all of his digital. So anything that you saw come out from his Twitter newsletter, YouTube, we shot it, produced it. Yeah, I knew it again. And we was publishing everything. Yeah, that's why I met Charlotte man at Steve's camp. Yeah. Oh yeah. That was like 10 years ago, eight years ago. Yeah. How important is ownership to y'all? Because y'all've always been big on ownership. You can't get kicked out and can't nobody buy you. Yeah. You know that. We have, ladies and gentlemen, DC Young Fly. I'm big on that ball shit. Fuck what a nigga talking about. I have a strange relationship with getting fired. So. It's some sort of ownership mandatory in all y'all deals or is it something? Yes, because black people don't own shit and we watch all our heroes die broke damn near. I agree. You know what I'm saying, you don't own nothing? They told you you can do what got you own. They like stop doing that. You like why can't we own it now? Equity is important in everything. If you can get some equity man, like, you know I was, I forget what's my man name, Jason Weaver, hi his mama was small enough to be able to get that back in deal. Like, yeah, exactly. You think about those, like those type of deals and that type of insight to have. Like if you go in, like, you know what I'm saying? It's like what magic did with Converse when he signed. You know how his deal work. He was getting 800 every year. Yeah, and now he get 32 million on the back end. Like that's, that's something you want to be the case. So it's, it's, but it's hard though. It's hard for niggas to come in and not take that lump sum up front. Because if you ain't never had something, you need it. They strain you all the way out and they'll starve you out as artists, just like on Fight Club when they be like, you gotta stand on the porch for a week. You got your boots, you got your pants, you got your t-shirt, you got your belt. And they just leave you out there. That's exactly how they do you, man. They'll starve you out. It's like financial literacy that we're not knowledgeable about. Especially when you realize, you're like, they doing deals like that? And you like, yeah, you don't know. And it's like, nobody put us up on gang that month, that those type of deals. We're being negotiated, we're negotiating, but they're playing hardball like, it's how we got. Then you come to find out, you like, hold up. So they did a deal like that with y'all, but what was all, what was obligated? What was you obligated to do? And then when you realize, oh, we're doing over and beyond what we're obligated. So now we're just employees and it's not a family situation. That's when you got to go for the bigger book. You like, you know what? We got to go for the bank. We knew ownership was important because they don't want to get nobody none. They want to hire everybody, but they don't want to, they don't want to partner with nobody. See, but y'all put yourselves in a position. You can't do anything but partner with y'all. So how have the strategic partnerships y'all done with like Netflix and Black Effect benefited the overall brand? Man, I'd say for the first five years, we were scared to partner with anybody because we ain't trust nobody. I remember. Yeah, like, it wasn't even that. We was thinking about it. We was just like, bro. They were trying to give us $3,000 in episode one. Either we gone, this shit won't sink us because we sank it type of thing, you know? I wouldn't be real with you, bro. Like you was calling us before the pandemic, you know? And talking to you and, you know, some of the private conversations we've had about the people that I admired versus, you know, how current modern business works and all those sort of things. Strategic partnerships, I think, very specifically for Black companies, for independent companies, we need them because there's only so much money to go around for resources and you don't recognize these are billion-dollar companies. So you may have a $10 million, $20 million company. That's cute, but if this company got $5 billion just to blow on money, you're never gonna close any sort of gap. So strategic partnerships became important for us as long as we knew it wasn't about the money. Why are we partnering with these people? What is the value that we can bring together? And it has to feel like a legitimate partnership because a bunch of people approaches and they really just want us to work for them but they just got a big old check. So strategic partnerships now are very important. Obviously you see what Netflix has done for us in a relationship with Charles has been very good but we don't have a bunch of them. We got the right ones, if that makes sense. Do you think y'all ever get to a point where opportunity is no longer an appropriate means of compensation? No, we already have that stuff, bro. No more of that. I mean, it depends on what the opportunity is. Charlemagne, you was over there on that boat with them white people. And what type of opportunity they giving you? No, they got all the money. But what I'm saying is they don't need no opportunity. If I'm saying what type they giving you, you should be like, Losey, to be a good look, I'm not interested. See, until we start getting invited for golf tournaments. Yeah, that's when it's talking real. Once we get to that level when they start inviting. Yeah, come on out to Cams. We have the yacht for a week, come on out. Steve doing it, Steve. I'm gonna be out there in November with Steve in Dubai. See, we ain't invited. So that's what I'm saying. We gotta get to the point where we get invited. They got golf courses in Dubai. They got everything in Dubai. Steve, all we do is own it. We get invited to like the domestic ones, not the international ones. Yeah, yeah, I don't think they want to play. I said that to him at the golf tournament that he just had. They made me come up and do a speech. I was like, nigga, everybody keep talking about how hospitable you are. You ain't never did nothing but show me how much better you living than I am, nigga. You ain't invited me nowhere. You flying niggas to Dubai and all this type of shit. And you just want me to come see how much bigger your new house is, fuck me, this ain't fair. You owe me, Mr. Hot Tower, nigga, you need to stop making up for some of that old shit. He said he'd do it just to get us in the room with- No, he doesn't. No, that was, it was dope. I will say, like just being able to look around and see all them dudes that was famous when I was a little boy is like, it's surreal because you get the opportunity to get that level of confirmation that the people that you grew up, the people that you grew up with- Y'all passing numbers around? Man, ain't man, y'all a freak, man. My name's not wrong with you. You ain't passing on cash numbers. No, ain't passing on cash numbers, but you know, you get the confirmation that the people that you grew up loving love you. And that's, you know, as far as outside of opportunity, that's something that makes you feel like, man, yeah, I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing because you seeing people that was a world away from you, like these people was inside the box when I was a broke little boy in DC. And then they like, hey, man, we love what you're doing. I'm a big fan of your work. I'm like, nigga, and so am I. They put me up on some opportunities to make some more paper. Cause I got a lot of catching up to do. I told you, my granddaddy never had a pair of drawers that fit him right. And I feel like I got to get back at the world for that. Cause I know he didn't never reach his full greatness cause his drawers was too big. He wasn't comfortable. Like I said, my dad ain't had no headstone. He definitely ain't do what he was supposed to do before. He got up out of it. Bro, we got to overcharge these niggas for what they did to the cold crush all the way. 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Simply Spiked is a trademark of the Simply Orange Juice Company. Now let's get back to our conversation with the 85 South Show. What were some things y'all were intentional about? Intentional about when doing this deal with Netflix in particular? Being taken serious. Yeah, Netflix was a two year deal, bro. Really? Yeah, it might've been three to keep it real. Three, really? Yeah. I remember the first time we all sat down and they had a bunch of, this is what we not gonna do, sort of thing. And I gotta bring that back to him. But we was intentional about Netflix. I think once it settled on us that it was a commercial, the light kind of went off for us on how to approach it. Because you know, we got to own this, gotta be this, gotta be this. But once we took that approach, it made it a easier process. Everybody adjusted to it. I tried, I had to talk him into it. I'm just gonna say it, I had to talk him into it. They was ready to walk. I was like, no, no, no, no. I ain't gonna lie, all right. You know, I'm real big on bending, boy. I be like, boy, hey, we way more powerful than that. Boy, I don't care about nothing. No, no, do you see? I'm like, that's what I'm doing. I'm going with you, big bro. Just listen, this is an opportunity for us to be opportunists. We don't know how to have shit. He like, let's do it. I'm rocking with you. The way I looked at it was like performing at the Super Bowl, man. You know what I mean? That's what it is. It's like performing at the Super Bowl. You know what I'm saying? You get that Super Bowl halftime performance, your streams go up, your ticket sales go up, and that's the way you look at it. You know what I mean? It's like a Super Bowl performance for what we do in comedy. We got to put our platform on the platform that's as big as the Super Bowl in regards to streaming. And now we went number one, so. Now I'm scared, though. See, I ain't. I'm scared, because I don't want nobody to come to one of our live shows, and then the first 12 rows is sold out, and all the niggas going to be like, bro. Like, yeah, bro, y'all should have embraced us while you had the chance. But she did the thing, right? They know we capable of going number one, but they also know that we'll negotiate to keep on the shield. And we're willing to turn away if we don't get on the shield. So as long as everybody's standpoint still got approved and got across the right way, because I'm like, like you said, it did with two years. It wasn't two years because we couldn't get our shit together. It was two years because we were like, no. Working on our own terms and conditions. Hell no, it ain't sounding right upon to what we trying to do. Like he said, it's halftime, it's a Super Bowl. But guess what? It may be the Dolphins playing God damn shits and giggles. This ain't the right Super Bowl right here. We got to wait till the big one. And once that bitch will be, the one in Miami, the Cowboys ain't ever going to. Yeah, I mean that type of one. And so, you know, it's just one of those things where we realize that the next time they come, it's like you can't deny, you know what I mean? You can't deny what it is. You can't deny what it is, you know what I mean? That's the beauty of getting that opportunity that you know, like you was talking about getting that opportunity if you give me the opportunity to show up and I'm, you know, auditioning for a contract in the NBA. When I come and I destroy everything, when we tear down the hole, you can't come to me and say, well, we only have a 10 day. Well, I don't play on 10 days. The only reason, I shouldn't even have to be doing this. You know what I mean? But I did it y'all way just to show that, okay, I'm willing to take this step back and let you handle it been as the way just to show you that when we come in and handle business, this will business look like on this side. You know what I mean? Y'all want them to come back with one of them Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle deal. Hell yeah. They ain't got no choice. They might do that. They might do like a two, three deal with y'all. Two, three. They ain't got no choice. And we already got them ready for them. They ain't got to do them, put their name on. What's one of the biggest lessons you learn while turning the 85 South show into the brand it is right now? Doing it with a collective. That is possible. Like you said, there ain't no blueprint. There ain't no blueprint to be a successful black-owned business. You know what I'm saying? Cause like everybody's sweat up and down. Somebody in the mix and somebody like, no bro, we are professionals. It doesn't matter. You have to be a professional. Our emotions is out the way, our egos is out the way. And we come together and sit down in the round table and we make the best decision better on the business. Now for you, you and you as a collective, if nine out of 11 is agreeing with it, the other two got the ride with the nine. I don't care. That's just how we is. And I feel like I always look back at this and we all go do our own ventures and do our own things. But we take what we learn from that and we bring it back over here because we have a successful business that we built from dirt. And like you said, we went number one, we own billboards, but we ain't done. We ain't know when they're done. So we just got to continue. What would you say? I mean, for me, it's just been trust and how important it is in all things that you do, especially business. You know what I mean? You got to trust people, man. You got to trust that. You know what I mean? If I close my eyes and grab your shoulder that I'm gonna make it to wherever the fuck we supposed to be going to in vice versa. So just that level of trust and being able to know that no matter what decision is being made is for the greater good of everybody and being able to trust that and being okay with whatever happens in regards to the decisions that is made. If it don't work, it don't work together. If it does work, it works together. Whatever failures we've had, we felt together. That billboard is in Times Square LA. We get to celebrate that the same way we dealt with the failures together. So that level of trust that's there is one of the most important things in building a business that looks like the one we've built and we're building is because if you don't have that trust, you don't get to this point. You don't get to the point of being able to revel in the successes of going to somewhere as big as YouTube or being on a black effect or having the type of relationship that we had because when we get separate from each other, you will be able to know that we don't really fuck with each other because the energy will be different when I'm around versus them two around and vice versa. So that level of trust that is present when we together versus when we not together that same energy ain't nothing gonna be said about these two motherfuckers about me or vice versa that we wouldn't say to each other in front of the world. Like that level of trust is so important because nobody can break into, you know, and come in and get in your ear and be like, man, ain't man fucking shit, man, you know, that's the only way that can happen is when that trust ain't there. So I realized how important trust is in business. How about you, love? How'd you like it? Good. No, I'll say two things for me. There's no protection in being isolated, you know? So as much as we talk about the collective, that's a real thing, you know? As soon as some money comes down the table, we're talking through it. As soon as the opportunity comes down the table, we're collectively talking through it. I don't have to be like a genius because I have three geniuses right here and another three there that we can get to a middle ground. And then secondly, I think this process has taught me business is not as much money or hard work as it is leverage. So you really are just building leverage, more or less leverage every day. And that's kind of how you navigate through the world. But that's not something you learn in a business class or something you're gonna read in a book. That the more leverage you can create is the more that you can control and navigate your own world. Loafs? One of the most important lessons that I learned about this is that money is important, but it holds no value. Oh, that's how I know y'all get money now. No, I'm not saying this. What I'm saying is... I mean, you gotta chill out, bro. I haven't done this shit too many years, my name. It's like money is important, but it holds no value. Money should never break up the family or change who you are as a person or change your thought process. You know what I'm saying? That's the number one thing that people fall out about in this industry. And when you have a team and you have a collective, you have to make sure everybody eat because you don't want none of that because that can fuck up your whole synergy. One unhappy person can fuck up all the success. But you gotta make sure you look out for your people and take care of your people. And don't sell your soul for the doubt. But you know the sad part, even when you do, you can be taken care of your people, but they want more. Exactly. That's when ego comes in. That's when... And I learned that from him, not the ego part, but the money part. Because you know me, I'm tight. I'm like, hell no. He like listen, fuck it. I'm like, what you mean fuck it? Hell no, you kill what you eat. Like he like listen, if that's what it is, let it go. We gonna keep going. And it rubbed off on me. Like it rubbed off on me. Hey, we ain't have to speak about it again and then. I was just like, if that motherfucker can do that. Okay, now I'm trying to figure out how he see it. Why did he move like that? If he move like that, it's only because it's a good heart. And it ain't about the doubt. Cause we gonna get the doubt. So it was like, all right, let me try. And then when I tried, I saw myself doing it constantly and constantly and constantly. Well, I'm like, all right, what sacrifice did you take? I was like, okay, well look, you take that shit. All right, well you get that one. Cause I ain't really, not saying I'm not tripping on it as a collective, as a business. I see how it keeps going and it keeps moving. And I'm like, all right, that's what this is all about. It's about picking up the slack and keep going. And this is probably one of the best, this is probably the best business, best group of people out of ever been around, bro. And if all fails and motherfuckers say, you got 10 people to build a business with, who you gonna get? I'm gonna get these motherfuckers. That's real. Straight up. But I just got the chills just by saying this. That's real though, man. I'm gonna go get these motherfuckers. And that's why I want, it ain't about the money or none of that shit. It's just that, man, that shit is the easiest way to destroy everything that you did. The wrong motherfuckers, like it breathes so much envy and negativity and resentment. So you have to use that shit as the tool that it literally is. It ain't just about clocking every dollar or chasing the bag. It's about your integrity, your mental, love. Like, what are you using this money for? You could just pile it up and have all of it. But if it ain't making the motherfuckers around you better or providing better, like everything for, making everything around you better, it's the fucking useless. That's real. Last question. How do y'all see the 85 South Shore brand evolving from here? Hiring a Breffle Club. You gonna hire the Breffle Club? I ain't giving this nigga no money. He got all the money. Like, he got all the money. Shala Mane really is that man. He's the greatest man. Yeah, he's our main. But nah, for me, I would say that question is always unique to me because, like me and Los was just talking outside. Like, man, I never try to limit myself to what my mind can think of because if I did, then I wouldn't have been able to write out half the shit I've accomplished already. So as long as I can keep, we keep doing this, whatever God got in store for us during the work that is necessary for us to keep doing it, it's gonna be to the sky, man. Bro, 2013 we was in this city. Me and this motherfucker walking back and forth to Western Union getting money grand. Broke, sending the little 50s and hundreds home, 200s to go from being broke, walking around this city to having a fucking billboard and Times Square in 10 years, nobody could have ever told us that. Yeah. You know what I mean? So it's like you just, when you look at it from that perspective and just, you know, the way my mind work would keep me humbled, I guess, is all the things that are issues in my life now would have been the solutions to every problem I had when we was walking down the street in 2013. I'm talking about whatever it may be, ah, man, I just had to, like you think about it, you just said you had to do what you had to do to get back from, you know what I mean, LA to New York. Imagine when you was a nigga working in Philadelphia. Living with my mom, I was living with my mom in 2009, back home with a two-year-old, that 32-year-old. Think about that and you think about the fact that you could do that now, like that's what keeps me from answering where you see it going. Would you have been, oh, yeah, one day, I'm gonna be able to just, boom, man. Now you wouldn't have thought no shit like that, your mind wouldn't allow you, so even though we are where we are now, I would never restrict myself to try to figure out what's gonna happen, because it's bigger than what I can ever imagine, I know it. I wanna have one of them big-ass buildings with a lot of bricks, and we all got the whole top floor, ain't nothing but offices and shit, you gotta get one of them little passes to come up. Y'all got that now in Atlanta, y'all got that damn compound. Yeah, but we going up with it. Yeah, we still on the ground floor. We wide right now. I wanna go vertical. So floor above it, I mean, up on the rest is part of it. We just gonna keep stacking up top. We not as about to start with no one studio, that's our first studio. We gonna look back, like you said, at five, 10. Like, damn, how did we pull that off in that little bit of headbill? You believe how much work we did in there? We need these 50 floors. We got 50 different shits going on on every floor. What you see, Chad? How you see the brand above it? I don't even, I still think we on, like, we finally getting to the checkpoint of stage one. You know, like where we really have a media company. So we have a studio, we got a film division, we have a management company, we have a merchandise company, and now we're here. Okay, now we running a company. And, you know, so like in my world, we're somewhere, you know, what Tyler Perry is and what he's created, kind of following that trajectory. Yeah, cause he ain't called us yet. That's how I know we still got work to do in Atlanta. Tyler Perry ain't reached out to us on nothing. Losing Tyler, I was talking to Tyler a couple of days ago. We need to call us on three way, Nick. No, because y'all too, the only people I saw super serve those secondary markets. They like to call us the secondary markets, Johnson, South Carolina's and, you know, the Jackson, Mississippi, they like, they say that's the secondary, y'all go there and y'all super serve those people. First of all, they not secondary market. I love secondary market. Nobody, nobody, people, I heard when you said that in the interview, I thought about it like, that's bullshit when you think about it because we're just the only ones who make it known that we're catering to those markets. Every black artist that there is makes their money in the South, in the history. Everybody. They call it the Chitlin Circle, which is disrespectful, it's actually the heart and soul of black people. It was the Chitlin Circle at the time because it was the only places that we were allowed to showcase our talent because we couldn't go to these venues, like you said, when we beat these certain entities and we made number one over these entities, they thinking that that's number one and other people are watching it and I scoot over to everybody that's popping that shit. But when we get the opportunity, you see what we do. So they looking at us like, oh, these are Chitlin Circle acts and I'm like, no, we just, we, we acts, you feel me? That's what it is. And the South ain't a Chitlin Circle. It's 50 States in the United States. LA ain't the biggest. Nope. And they just shut down affirmative action in colleges. So niggas might be on their way back to the Chitlin Circle and wait until the way it go. From the business side, I love LA, love New York, love Philly, love Chicago, none of the most expensive cities to produce anything. Mobile, Memphis, New Orleans, Louisiana, Jacksonville, Florida, these people, Nashville, they gonna come to your show and then they gonna sell it out. Then they gonna sell it out two or three times. Then they gonna buy your merchandise. Then they gonna ask you to come do a pop-up shop for $10,000 for three hours. Because they appreciate the art. Yeah. They don't look at it like Chitlin Circle. And then they gonna cook, they gonna cook out right there in front of the store and offer you home cooked food. It feels like family. It's Charlotte, North Carolina, South Carolina, all these cities we go to in the South, they treat us, it's real. 70% of all black people in America are in the South. That's the thing about being up here though, like in New York, you see that transition and you see that they want that type of love. When they be like, man, when y'all niggas coming up here, son, fuck y'all. It's a little different way that they ass, but you see that, you know what I mean? I'm a ass nigga, we love nigga too. Niggas, nigga, fuckers up with you niggas, nigga. But the fact that we've been able to curate a platform that people can see like, man, I want some of that shit where I'm at, nigga. Don't make it so difficult. Don't make me have to fly to wherever, man, bring that shit here. And when we get came and did the King's Theater in New York and when we go to Philly and we go to these places, it looks the same because those people that are there, everybody from the South for real, no matter where you from if you're black. But when you come, you want that love too and where you from, because nine times out of 10, if you're from a major metropolis like this, it's real hard for you to find, especially in the way we offering it. Well, I think the next level, man, before y'all don't do no deal before we do an independent movie. Oh, that's neat. We're doing it now. Whatever. Y'all doing it independently. Y'all got to do a one independent movie on y'all own. Oh, yeah. And it's coming out right now. It's in production, bro. Yeah. And then you're going to be in it. We're going to make you the old Charlemagne versus the new Charlemagne. We're going to get the makeup and put your old face on your new face and make you fight to get your new face back. That's nice. Make you fight to get your new face back. Make you fight to get your new face back. Old face versus new face Charlemagne. Who ain't got to fight? Himself. Nah, what about the nigga that was down still? Wayne on him? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Now, he already won. We already found him, nigga. We said we're going to find two niggas. You're going to find two niggas. You got to fight. All you're going to hear is, can I get a drop? Then they're going to turn around. You still want a drop? Bro, I said the last thing y'all got to do is one independent movie, man. I've been talking to you about this for years. One indie movie. Well, I would be happy to inform you that we are one fourth done with the independent movie. OK. The script is being written out right now. I think we got a classic on our hands. Very funny. Very hilarious. I got whatever on the investment. Whatever? Say less. Well, I got a budget, but it's what it is. Yeah, I'll switch it up now, man. It's a whatever budget. You remember that? So we're going to add the car crash. Exactly. Now, when I told you, we're going to get his old skin back. That's when he got the budget. We're going to get his old face back and make him put that on. And you're going to be like Zordon off the Power Rangers. You're going to be like who we got to talk to to get our missions for whatever we're doing in the movie. No, I'm going to invest in that with y'all. Bro, I believe you got it, bro. Your family is very successful these days. No, man. Proud of you, though, Slim, man. Thank you, bro. I remember when you didn't have all that, too. You know, you were still in a better position than we was, and you still used the position you was in to help us. So, man, it's always a little disheveling. You changed, though. You changed for the better good. I mean, of course, evolved, but it's like change for the better because you wanted to be better. That's right. Of course, you still do you and you get on people's nerves, but I don't think people look at it like, oh, man, these motherfuckers get up on our skin, bro. People don't have no idea what you really do. They really think you just owed this fucking perfect plan. And they don't know how fucking deep you are in these streets. And you do a great job of keeping them off in your trail. And I think you should use that same discretion with us when you keep talking about money and shit. Right. I hate that nigga. That's the name, man, y'all. Damn, what are you doing? All right, Chico. Y'all do a big thing. You do a big thing, motherfucker. Y'all looking at your students. You're looking at the diamonds, man. Life's been you good, huh? Fuck you, nigga. Y'all boys don't even like money no more. You don't even eat food on a yacht. You've been giving us opportunities for years. You ain't like, I got the money, nigga. You got the money. No, you got the paper because we was at the chop house and they brought the bill. I was like, man, call Charlotte, man. Everybody got their own show in the same building. Does it have good, y'all, nigga? Y'all doing great over here, man. We doing all right. See what I'm saying? No, no, no, there it is. There it is. We doing all right, but we got... Oh, I know you niggas rich now. Oh, yeah. That's how I know you niggas was getting money, baby. Where baby was the caviar? Baby was the champagne. So what about you? TV shows and producing. Are you big on that? Yeah. Yeah. He done been doing it. Uncommon sense. Is the comedy... Is it done? Oh, no. They canceled it. They canceled it. Right as Craig and... Oh, yeah. That's right. They canceled Uncommon sense? Or you can pick it back up and do what you want to do. The MTV 2 ended as a network. So they weren't doing that. God's on his truth program. Yeah, the last one I had, the God's on his truth program. Right as Craig. We talked about this on the phone before, but what's your thoughts on ownership and equity splits and how they should go as you invest and you partner? I think strategic partnerships are the way to scale. I think that companies like y'all are doing it exactly right. Like, you know when to go do strategic partnerships and you know when to keep things 100% in the pay-all loan. You know, I think that these people out here that's just screaming 100% ownership of everything that's just ridiculous and short-sighted. There's no company that does that. There's no corporation in the world that does that. Everybody partners with somebody in order to get the scale. So partnership, when I'm going to break it down, though, when you say partnership that don't mean you buy equity into the company. Now, you are a part owner of the company. You partner with... Partner with the company. 100% but see like y'all, right? Y'all own 100% of things. If y'all partnered with somebody and gave them 10%, if they're bringing an infrastructure that's a multi-million dollar infrastructure or a billion dollar infrastructure and it can take 85 South from you. We could partner with them but you'll never get 10% of what we already started because now we technically... Because on the contractual side, we have to bring you in in order for a degree and if you say no, we cannot go through. No, no, no, no. As long as y'all got the power and the creative control and y'all still call the shots, and I'm just over here as an equity investor right now. What if the infrastructure can take y'all from a $10 million company to a $200 million company? Hypothetical, hypothetical. You could partner with... That's what I'm saying. Now y'all are pushing up $300 million as opposed to $20. I'm just trying to bust up whatever the fuck they gave you over there that net worth for canceling that show, nigga. I'm going to show you because you my man. I'mma show you. I'mma show you. Why you ain't showing me? I'mma show all of y'all. I'mma show you. I'mma show you. I'mma show you. No, no, no. I just want you all to pick that up. I'mma show you what you ain't get. Information is important. That's what I wanted to have y'all on. Just have y'all talk about the business of 85 because I hear so many people talk about what y'all are doing. But I've never heard y'all, you know, break it down publicly. I talk to y'all as in the big part of it. I mean we don't like to talk business. We talk business, but we don't like to talk business. I get it. I mean we gotta say some people that I want to do some business with Def Jam and Monster. And I want to get with Johnson & Johnson and come out with my own cocoa butter. That can happen. I'm all elbows. I'm all room writing a book and fashion people, man. I'm telling you, man, them and them motherfuckers, I'm telling you, these fashion and this Chevrolet, stop playing with me, man. You want to do a book, Chico? Yeah, I'm gonna write a book. A book and write. You know I got a book imprint? You got a book imprint? I get privileged probably to do a shaman and shoester. Shaman and shoester? You got a shaman and shoester? Ah, yeah. I'll let you too. I put calls on you, man, with them. You ain't even replied back. I'm on my fourth page. I got that. I still am. I'm on my fourth page. Of your book? Mm-hmm. You can do a children's book. Shit take time. I'm trying to get deep and you gonna send me straight to the kids. I said I'm on my fourth page. You need to do a children's book. And here we go. DC flow. A means you're a glad little boy. That's a hit. A means you're a glad little boy. A means you're a glad little boy. You're a glad little boy. Okay, now B means you're a poor man. Little boy. Okay, now C means you're a poor man. Yeah, that actually is a good idea. I'm home, man. Come on, man. That's great. Hold on. So, hold on. One of these shows is bringing up what is it called a teenage crack head. Yeah, I think that's just on your TV. No, it ain't wrong. I think it's a show called Crack Babies or something like that. It's a cartoon called Crack Babies. It's a show called Teenage Crack Head. Teenage Mutants Eternal. I'm like, what if we would have came out with a teenage crack head? We would have been talking about it. Yeah, you guys are too close to the crack for us to accept it, man. Yeah, all the way. It's the 85 South Shore y'all. Make sure y'all go download the channel 85. Please. Subscribe to all 85 South Shore content. Make sure y'all watch the ghetto legends on Netflix. Make sure y'all subscribe to the 85 South Shore podcast on the Black Effect podcast and that work, man. Y'all brothers just keep growing, man. Thank you, man. Thank you, man. Appreciate you for everything, bro. Go to 85lacuracompany.com. We got some new threads. I got on some new merch right now. Some new merchandise. We dropping gym shorts. We dropping baby clothes. We dropping toddler clothes. Yeah, we got a dope ass onesie. We got candles. We got a onesie for the baby. My boy with the straps in the middle. Damn. Speaking of people y'all want to do business with, whoever has a license for Negro League Baseball, I want to get in touch with them. You get in touch with the good folks over there, Mitchell and Ness. That's who it is. Whoever has a license to make this stuff, our company should be making this stuff. A black company should be making Negro League Baseball license. Mitchell and Ness make my own Black Effect hats. Really? Absolutely. I love them. Bro, they gave me so much shit for my birthday. All the way. That's love, man. Trent, I'm going to connect you with 85 South Shore, man. You know, I'm talking too much. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about that. 85 South Shore. Appreciate you, man. Peace.