 What they gon' do with me now? I'm still a talk of the town All these sisters, I'm hoakin' them down Reachin' the smiles and the frowns Gang hop out, then we clarin' the price I know all too well how social media comments Could be blown up to something bigger And affect real life What's goin' on y'all, it's Lauren Kay We here at Talk of the Town And who's here today? Who's here today? You tell me I don't know How you don't know? Oh, you talkin' about me? Duh Oh, my floor It's me It's me Caesar Caesar, CEO, Black Ink, what's up? I like that intro, CEO, period Okay, so let's start from the very beginning How do we start tattooing? How did that start? Damn, we goin' way back then Yeah, back, back to the back That shit was a while ago, y'all That shit feels like almost 20 years ago How long ago was it? I don't even remember We not gon' do that Okay Don't go do that It's tryin' to put a nigga Age out there and shit I can't Google it? Nah, shit I paid enough money for them Flip those numbers, it'll be good Let me think How old was I? I ain't even gettin' the age But I think my daughter My daughter wasn't born yet You know And I just wanted a way out the streets And then it was a whole bunch of like It was stuff leadin' towards that situation Me tattooin' Because it was crazy Because I remember I was doin' my thing in Harlem And then, you know, I was goin' to school at the time Because, you know, I heard I was havin' a kid And I was like, I need to change my life around So I started goin' back to school I was drawing again and stuff like that Doing, I was takin' a visual communication course Okay So, you know, I was tryin' to be a good boy You know what I mean? Tryin' to do what was right Because, you know, havin' a kid I don't want to be goin' to jail and shit For what? For stupid shit So I did that now And I was still in the streets though I was goin' to school because I had to make money Right And this is in Harlem, you said? This is in Harlem So the last, like my last customer, you feel me? I ain't really know, you know what I mean? He was a tattoo artist Okay So it was one day I was drawing shit for people on the load And givin' it to him for a get tattoo So one day he found out it was me He was like, yo listen I was goin' up there to serve him He was like, yo I make a deal with you I know your baby mom's Yo, stop all this shit you doin' I'm sure you had a tattoo You ain't got to be in the streets That's why, yeah Now I looked at him and I was like What the fuck outta here You wasn't jackin' it? Nah, cuz I wasn't really kids Like in this world no one kids you Nothin' like that, you know what I mean? Especially you destroying a life and shit You sittin' and sellin' these motherfuckers drugs You like, you want to help me Right After I'm fuckin' you up Allegedly So what happened was I took him up on his oil farm Cuz I already had a friend named Malcolm Andre Malcolm who was already gettin' tattoo money But he was too busy and shit like that So I ain't really Pursued with him But with Homie I did it for like Like three months I stood on that one And three months I was already ready to go And that's what I did Then I went to Brooklyn Opened up a shop in Bed Style Kowaki is Inc That first year I was in Urban Inc. magazine The first edition I know that's right And then for now I was in a couple magazines For now And then Went to Black Inc Co-wasn't miles at the time And Eventually took it over And we see where I'm at now So when did you learn how to draw? Cuz you said basically you went for my drawings That shit was That was when I was little Like my mom used to leave me in the crib and shit like that So natural talent type shit Yeah it was like I just You know back then we had VCRs Don't try to tell my age name I wasn't gonna say I was still here for the VCR I was here for that I don't know cuz the way you just looked at me VCR sounding kinda foreign I was here for that I was popping in the rug rat tapes Damn Alright boom Okay So Nigga like me would be pausing a lot And all that other stuff And just be drawing My mom was really wanting me to work for Disney And at the time I really wanted to please my mother But man listen When you go to school You're drawing and shit like that I'm looking at you like you're a punk So I had to keep that shit to the side for a minute Really? Yeah No one really knew I drew I had a bunch of sketchbooks in the house But I didn't go out there and show anybody I didn't really So people knew I really drew Till I'm trying to go to high school I want to go to specialized high school for art Oh Which one? I wanted to go with art and design back then Either art and design or what was it? LaGuardia But I ended up going to graphic arts That's fire Okay so You get in the shop now Who's your first celebrity client? Ooh Damn It's a timeline We're going back We're going to work our way back to 2022 though My first celebrity client I really don't remember I've tattooed so many celebrities I really I know you mentioned I watched the interviews before I know you mentioned doing like ASAP Rocky Before he blew up Yeah See the ASAP mom was just like They little kids at that time They were just running around the block They was like We used to think like They was cool weird kids Like they wasn't doing no Like I just want to sell drugs They was on some other shit So yeah we did them When it was little what Ferb or that shit It's like damn But who's the first Because you got to understand When I went to black ink It was like It was different Nobody was coming the best I could tattoo No celebrity was scared Of the staff? They were scared of the staff Back then My tattoo shot was on Marcus Golfe between Jepsen And Hancock They used to be called homicide Boulevard Oh wow Yeah that shit was dangerous So none They wasn't coming in But when black ink though It was a different feel I remember cause I used to tattoo a lot of Fucking people Especially radio personalities Like Angel Martinez That's why And Lava Olin from back then So when you ask questions like that Damn I think it's really fire that You said people used to be scared To come to the staff to get tattoo And now you have your own Shit in the staff Like I think that's Yeah I have to circle back Because Even though I'm not All the way from best I That's my home I basically feel like That's what created Cesar Okay so where are you from And how did we Yeah and how did you Grow this love from best I Really from the Bronx But Oh wow Whoa What was that about The Bronx Nah It's honestly the Bronx And Brooklyn is kinda the same thing It's not It is You saw the room Whoa Nah yo Because you gotta understand right I grew up in the Bronx My mom was a Jamaican So I grew out of Jamaican So I grew up there In the White Plains Road You know what I mean In Brooklyn now Best I now My pop is American Okay And half a best I Is my family So when When it goes back and forth It's like And I'm over here On my Jamaican side Right When I'm On my bullshit I'm in the best I That's why a lot of people Like nah he from best I Cause he used to see me From before Cause half of my Pop family from there Feel me So it's like When you say It's not the same It kinda is Cause both of them Burrows be on They bullshit I'm not going to I used to ride through the Bronx With my windows up Cause I didn't want to Inhale that air Yeah I hate it You know what I mean It's a couple of spots But nah It ain't like that no more So why did you name The door Best I instead of Bronx Because that's where I Started from Best I Okay Same I just think Your love for Brooklyn Is greater So we take that point That's what it seems Now both of them Burrows mold in me So I can't do that Okay So Both Half half Okay So you mentioned Doing Angie Martinez I love her So where does VH1 come from How long are you at Black Ink Before VH1 approaches Y'all How does that go VH1 was Because of Corrigans Corrigans I came in I was tattooing his chest For his shows He called his son over Gun I remember I had at least Seen the chemistry In the shop You want to film Something in here Now at first I was turning that shit down Because I was like Man Fuck that Man Like y'all tripping Because I done seen Why didn't you like about it Because every time I watch reality TV There's nothing There's nothing positive About that shit They be saying Fucking Like making And not even Just fighting Because we fought But it just makes I feel like It was never positive For the male Nothing Always He's He's a womanizer He's this He's that It's like The shit that we Ain't trying to be on That's what You got to be on the Survival on that type On TV So When they first came It was like Then like after the third time My cousin Pulled me to the side I was like Yo What we going to do What we going to do I think three times Is crazy Yeah I really didn't realize How it was But yeah Wow So it was like Yo come on Let's do it So I was like When Ted told me that shit He was like Yo What we going to do We going to keep doing that shit I felt like We was good We was making money in the streets And we was tattooing We good Nah He said Nah We can't keep doing this Survival So I was like Fuck it Let's do this shit Because I know We don't go nowhere Okay Man listen We shot that pilot We ain't Period Love that So You and Duchess Were y'all together before the show Or that really happened Like on camera The way Wow You really brought that shit back Okay Let's go I told you we going down the timeline That's deep down the rabbit hole Like I ain't even got about that part of mine Like someone All right So let's talk about that Um Duchess was she With relation before Were y'all two Yeah Like did y'all really get together On camera the way it's portrayed Or like y'all was together And then they made y'all like reenacted It was kind of Both All right Me and Duchess was fucking around Okay Before the camera Okay But while we filming People starting to catch on That we was fucking around And they said you know And people as in like production Or people as in like in a shop Production The shop already knew Okay They were fucking around You feel me Cause Duchess had came up After she see She see me a couple magazines So she came up to New York Looking for me Okay So it was like All right what's up She was fucking around for a while Production found out And they started Like How can you say Not pushing us together But they'll do shit And you realize They were setting it up Basically And before you know it was like Y'all together together Y'all minds all do that shit Okay You know She a smart girl And I was like You know We can make some money out of this situation So fucking Let's try to do this power couple shit And that's what happened So How much of I might be going to ask you about reality TV in a whole Let's focus on black ink How much of that was Produced On your end Like how much of it was Yeah how much of it was I put my whole life Put together like that Or you know what I'm saying My life is reality So Like You just put a camera on me And it's a gold Like I ain't like All that shit That's the beauty of it With me Like you don't really You don't have to produce me You just have to put the pieces together And it's a gold Like that's Nah But you You absolutely right After a while Some of the characters Story will all start Drawing up So you have to produce it Okay With me Nah It's gonna be something It is what it is What it is with me Which is on? Gemina Okay No wait stop It wasn't a bad mm It was like a I don't know that last mm When I say I'm from the Bronx And that I'm a Gemina mm It kind of sounds the same to me But hey Maybe I'm wrong No I got different mms Okay that was a mm Because I'm an Aquarius I'm an air sign I identify with the air sign You're an air sign too I don't know You know that I know that That's why we supposed to be cool But I don't know Because I'm from the Bronx You're from Brooklyn Yeah I just The Bronx I just can't get jiggy with But the air sign thing I definitely can So Two sides I could see So which side did you show On reality TV Both sides Or you focused on one side Nah I should one side Okay Because I On reality TV You gotta be able to Switching on and on You feel me Like The way I am in real life Is not the way I'm on TV Yeah Like on TV You got a bunch of motherfuckers That be wanting to play with you And really don't work for you So sometimes you gotta set the tone Like Now you ain't gonna do this Cause I got Eight more shops and these motherfuckers Ain't gonna start acting up Right And then it's just like You're also trying to carry A certain respect with your company Because You've been there so long now You got a lot more fuckin' known Like Yo chill Don't do this But in real life I ain't arguing nobody If I gotta fight you I don't even fight you Myself So it's like Cause that was a thing for you The firing was a thing for you Yeah I ain't gonna lie It was But I feel like I passed Trump and that shit So I was like I ain't got five people no more Okay It was between me and him It was something You know what I mean He fired somebody I got five two people You know what I mean Every week it was Between me and him It was a truth You know what I like the accountability I like the accountability So What is your relationship like With the rest of the cast? Past, present That's interesting I mean I cannot say it That's a good question I can't sound arrogant Okay Why not? Because I can't sound arrogant Cause people gonna say I'm arrogant And then I don't want That persona of me But honestly I'm cool with I'm cool with Almost everybody I see them If I'm not They stay the hell away from me But Yeah It's all up there Nah Not with everybody Nah Like You know From watching the show You know who I fuck Where I don't Right So that part is real Like if you fuck with them On camera you fuck with them Yeah If I fuck with you on camera I really fuck with you If I don't fuck with you On camera I really don't fuck with you And it's just How I am because I just feel like this Different people have goals And like if your goals Don't kind of match them With mine What am I saying Yeah Absolutely right I don't need no new friends You're absolutely right about that I think that that's Like with any relationship And like friendships Relationships Like I think if the If your best interests And their best interests Don't coincide Then Then they're gonna match up If you don't play Video games all day I want to check A couple million dollars Everyday It don't match up Right You're right So Being on reality TV And like you said You were true on there You was giving your whole life Do you feel like Every Like the perks of being A reality TV star Is worth giving up Like your privacy And shit like that 24-7 See with me It's kind of different Because I was able to I was able to Basically franchise A business over there Right If it was not If it was not beneficial In some type of way Nah You see There's some people They're thirsty for that Like they're thirsty For people to know them When they go outside Me I always just wanted the money Man, that sounded crazy Okay I mean in business Yeah That's what you do in business That's what I wanted Like If nobody even knew My name might have been cool With that shit Because I'm driving something crazy You know what I mean So when it comes down to it It's like Reality TV Served its purpose for me Now there's a lot more Fuck it out there I see right now Who's on reality TV forever Came off and ain't back to square one That can't be me Okay, period So I know The past is the past We're gonna leave the past in the past Oh, you finished the past? No, we're not No, in this question right here Oh, okay So Today Where do you and your daughter stand? We try and work shit out I like that She off in college and whatnot So Love that Congratulations to her I mean she's doing her thing What she's supposed to be doing At the end of the day Like everybody know Townhill all wants Right Shit like that We family This functional family And that what we still family So You know how that goes One day in them Y'all gonna be seeing us on Instagram Kicking in bullshit Every family got their bullshit Every family got their bullshit So do you want more kids? Or like Damn What do you really Going there Like you went from that To this thing That's actually crazy I feel like we haven't even really Gone into the tea yet I feel like this is hot water We gonna put the tea bag in This is not hot water You just ask me if I want more kids Like They ain't hot See The problem there is I do what I don't Okay I do want more kids But I don't want to have Another baby mobile situation I'd rather be like Married or something Before I say anything like Yeah we having a kid So you want to get married What? You want to get married I said if it was happened Then that has to happen That's a big if Okay Marry Like Marry me I don't think anybody Will be in there for that long haul Like that That's a lot of work That's a crazy statement to say What? You don't think nobody will marry you? No I'm a Gemini I don't know sometimes How I wake up my damn son I don't know what side I'm waking up for I'm gonna let you know Sometimes I might not say Nothing But I had none And one day I'm like Oh I love you baby I don't know It's like You know But I still feel like Maybe there's somebody That wakes up the same way Maybe somebody wakes up like As moody as you No we can't have that See that's why I can't be In that type of relationship Okay but maybe there's Somebody that balance you out too Maybe there's somebody That don't care that you're moody Maybe But when that happens I'm gonna let you know You invited to what I don't know I like that Period So on Instagram You posted I suck at showing sympathy And if you start crying I'm gonna stare at you Right And on Pete Films interview You said that you feel like As a man You have to Like suffer in silence So why do you feel like Black men don't have the Room to be emotional I mean If you look at any If you look at a characteristic Of a man Especially a black man Is mostly supposed to be strong We're supposed to be Responsible We're supposed to take care of Home And certain characteristics That as a black man We're supposed to have Nothing never says We're supposed to be emotional Nothing never says We're supposed to break down There's no There's never been a picture Of a strong black man Who sits there And cries in the shower If you really think about Film Anything Even if we depict ourselves We don't depict ourselves As that We always depict ourselves As strong So to be that Is like You gotta remove the emotion And be logical all the time It's almost like You always gotta take the high road You can't sit there And just like Fuck And break the fuck down Cause that's just not how it is You think so? Yeah Because With me there I feel like Even with me break If I was to break down No one's gonna give a fuck And that's being honest The only thing you can do Is get to the solution Cause you have a problem I don't got time to break down Cause that's what some people want from me That's why some people do the shit they do To see that moment I'm not gonna give you that satisfaction Um Hmm Okay But that's what I was talking about When I was posting it Now other people We having like Other like Major stress and all that other shit The way they take care of it Is the way they take care of it I'm never gonna But you feel like You got it I feel like I can't do that So do you ever Like Process your emotions Do you feel your emotions Or do you just Surprised and keep it pushing For the sake of I'm probably just my emotions But My process of emotion Might be different than your process Okay A lot of shit hit me at one time And that's when I was little I learned how to Manage and not basically Put myself in a hole Like some people get depressed And shit Not certain things Yeah Like death You're supposed to mourn Right But you're never gonna See me for a month Not coming out of my house Okay And that's just me not Like I said Other people That's how you cope with With whatever you cope with Is different Than me I'm just I process my shit quick But I already know Especially with death They're not coming back Feel me You just got to take care of it Is Do you believe in therapy Yeah, I believe in therapy Especially if you make Irrational decisions Would you do it Or I've done it already Really I want to get into it How was it It was And did you have like A black therapist Woman, man Wow I think that matters Because I feel like With white people They I feel like there's a certain Side of the coin That they're never gonna see Because they're white Like it doesn't matter How much they could sympathize Or empathize They'll never see the full picture Because they're white That's how I feel Well, I had a black male doctor Okay He made me see certain things That I never really saw myself Even like While I was on TV The trauma I went through And I processed it too quick Because In my head Responsibility Especially coming from A Jamaican family Is the most Is number one Right So if you're sitting here And you have a crew That you're feeding You don't really got time To sit down And mourn And shit like that And he made me realize Some of the times I was wrong Some of the times You know what I mean I should have took time out For myself Which I never did Because I was always Trying to appease Other people And With that It just like It opened my eyes To certain things Because once you Think the way you think For so long Yeah It takes somebody else Like almost Not mine though But Somebody else's theories To go with yours And be like Maybe I was wrong On certain things And I could see Where I was wrong On certain things That's right So you see In the media A lot has been going on With Ye I feel like A lot of people Are going back and forth About Do we cancel him For real? Do we not? So what are your thoughts On the whole Cancel culture thing As a black man The funny shit is Right? You ever know Is the whole Cancel culture thing It's only canceling us Like That shit I've never seen a white person Get canceled by this Cancel culture Like And there's some Canceling that need to be Cancel But I don't hear that shit I agree You know what I mean All it is Is like It's like Black on black Crime Is like You want to cancel This person For feeding his family Because his opinion Is different than yours It goes beyond opinion When someone Like Ye Has the impact That he does Well who gave it to him It was us It was cool It was cool When he was saying What we thought was cool With us Now it's He's saying something That we go against So let's cancel him Nah If you want to take him As good You got to take him As bad too And it's crazy Because I just Feel like With him He went through A lot And honest to God From his mom's guy And he never been the same And no one's seeing that shit His mom's left I feel like that's what the Documentary shows Yeah When his mom's died He's flipped Like everybody's He's breaking down At fucking press conferences Running for president Nah Homies crying out for help But he got too much money For anybody's city as them But he needs some help That's about it Other than that Some of the stuff he be saying Is not the message Is the messenger Okay Feel me Because Certain shit I can't agree with I think everybody agree With him behind closed doors About certain shit Behind closed doors Everybody agree with him He's just saying What he want to say Certain shit though I think sometimes Certain shit Like the major shit But then sometimes Like what Right Definitely what Oh yeah That was a bad blunt Alright So I was going to ask you Where do you draw the line Like where do you feel like Okay this person made a mistake Let's let them learn Let's teach them And let's move on with life Or like verses Okay this person Like this is not a mistake This is who they are They're done How do you draw the line Like my shit is Life is always about correction And when you make mistakes Like even when you as young Go to church They teach you You sin You ask for forgiveness Right You give it to you Feel me So it's already taught That you're going to fuck up I don't think there's Every really like Let's say a family member Do you kick a family member Out to keep going to jail For stealing and robbing And shit like that Some people do See what I mean But that ain't love Because that's still your family member You gotta accept them for who they is I just feel like Well us We kicked this We quick to say We don't accept this And we not deal with it Who's us black people Yeah black people We just sit there And say we not accept this And we just kick our own cells In the ass all the time It's like The media feed us anything And we'll eat that shit Sometime up Especially about our own And I seen that shit happen Many many a time It's like Wow this shit is just This shit is just crazy You know what I mean And I'm not just talking About some person Like every time you turn Turn something on Shave them with something That's a fact It's some bullshit About another And then everybody's Eating it up It's like When does that shit even Like stop And I don't see You see TMZ putting out Dirt But then it'll be like This shit that we see On the internet Like this shit is just Crazy you know what I mean I think it derives from Black people Having to Or feeling like They have to Uphold a certain You know Statue And so we don't allow Our own to make mistakes When sometimes we gotta forget On the internet We gotta do this shit In real life first We gonna do that shit It gotta be straight Across the board It can't be On the internet Just because I got a keyboard And a free wifi I'm cancelling somebody Like that shit is stupid to me Free wifi Free wifi Okay So You mentioned learning from your mistakes So Like I said We not digging into the past Right now So When everything happened with Best I That's his dog y'all What did that situation teach you It taught me Honestly Even before that incident happened I mean When that incident happened Because you gotta understand That video was like Almost two years old Probably older than that Okay I already had A seat to help With best I Because you know You're growing up in the hood And shit like that You don't know the proper way Of How can you say it Disciplining your dog And The correct way of training your dog You try to sit and sit Look at him Hopefully he sit Good dog You don't understand that shit You feel me So the first thing I did After that incident Was Go to obedience school Teach me and How to properly Get to Get together and communicate Right The other dog I got rid of him Because He had two It was two Okay That's what set him off It was that little dog That little dog He was a problem I don't know Because I got him from Cleveland He's supposed to Have been an American bully That motherfucker Was a mixed something I don't even know What he was But it was just It was a whole thing But after the incident You feel me I just learned a lot You gotta watch What you have around you You feel me Because That shit was just Crazy how that video Was even got leaked Right You gotta watch You gotta watch yourself At all times Because you gotta understand Being Being who I am You constantly On the mic So people constantly watching And that one moment I lost it And that shit got me Caught up And it's crazy What I'm saying And I'm like Damn For one moment I was just Fucked up at And that shit dies Everything What I learned now I think it's a great way To look at it Everything is a learning experience You take something from everything And it is Because in the end of the day It's like this Right Some people Get upset And it was like Yo Glad you got kids Glad you got kicked off Black gang And then the others Like damn Can't be black Gang Without season Right You know what I mean I understand People being disappointed Because There's a lot of people Who are entrepreneurial Right And entrepreneurship So it's like I understand What y'all see My fault And that's why I say You know what I'm going to take full Accountability Because when that video came out I could easily say Yo That shit ain't me That shit is wild for you If you look at it That's It could have been Any black man Yo Go look at it again I didn't have to Really say it was me But I took accountability Because it was me I was like Yeah I definitely took accountability For that shit Yeah And it was A fucked up moment Yeah And I'm great That shit Even never happened But that shit had to happen For me to get in this place That I could learn What I'm learning there Humility That's a fact Everything definitely happens For a reason So On black ink I know you weren't Just a cast member You executive producer Right So What is an executive producer And what are the roles Of an executive producer Oh Executive producer is a lot Of them I don't miss But it was easy for me Because it's like Everybody I knew them So It sounds crazy So I knew Everybody's like Dirt What they going through All that other shit So With me From being With them for years It was easy It's like I Ted's dating this This girl Call shorty over We're gonna have a party Call that one in early And then we have the other One show up They're gonna bang heads And that's gonna be a fight So the executive producer Just pull the strings You just pull the strings That's it You pull the string With the other producers And get your scenes But As wild scenes I just start Put it like this Season So when you were the Executive producer What were some things That you had to maybe Sacrifice Because you weren't Like just a regular cast member It was like Executive producer And boss in the shop So that's a double With me Like that was the most Important thing I had to sacrifice a lot of time Because We'll have days That we film For like 12 hours And I still have to Sit there With the other producers Go over certain things For the next day And what we want to shoot Just in case it came on schedule The scene didn't go I was We thought it was gonna go It'd be wild shit And then on top of that I got to run my tattoo business Right So it was a headache And work After a while My tattoo business came last And that's what We started suffering So I'm like Now that's my That's my brain and Butters After all this shit is done That's what I have So I have to sit back And like You know what Y'all is that you're Produced this You know what I mean I gotta get back to my shots I ain't got time for it So how much input did you have On Like What made the final cut As far as No one got The episode area Because Honestly They added how they wanted To To groove How they want The episode to groove So even as a producer You don't have saying that Yeah Hmm That's interesting That's TV TV TV You see it Right now So how much involvement do you have In Well first of all How many shops do you have in total Ten Ten Okay so how much involvement do you have In Each shop Day to day Every day From time that The first employee walks in To the time the shop closes I got Cameras everywhere I got Clothes everywhere I got Um General managers For each region Okay So How does You No longer working For VH1 Impact the involvement Of Your shops Because I would imagine You're not giving them nothing for free But you still need to be In the shops I mean Truthfully When the news first hit It was kind of like Kind of slowed up a little something But um Nah Because There's always been a difference Between the blacking crew And the blacking brand Okay Even if you ever know There's none of them Cast members really work for me I got real people Working for me So It was never no Oh we just doing it Because of the show I got Real real people working And they got real clients So Right That didn't slow up Nothing because The way I do it is I don't Bring people in To work in To these shops I Basically hire people That's in no city Okay So it's not Effective business Because honestly Everybody In those shops In those areas With those shops Is know who I am I've been to them Right Like Houston All them shit Like I've been around So people know who I am And then honestly They all say Yo listen You made a mistake We good And I'm cool with that shit That's why I'm not really sweating Because On the internet They can say Whatever they want When reality As long as my people Love me I can still go back home I'm good Troy Lane said Something like that On the breakfast club He was like How like People will be canceled Online But like When you go out Into the real world Like everybody love you Yeah And you like Wear all these niggas Yeah Wear you niggas I'm wearing for someone Yo you fucking Dog abuser Like nah Like Most of the time Yo man Forget that shit See That's what it is I don't even keep it Pushing From when you were on the show Like what were your Some of your best moments Most memorable moments Ooh I don't I had a lot of good moments On Black Ink I had a lot of great moments The most The best moments I think was Was when I opened up My first franchise Shop Atlanta I feel like That was like When Because that was the moment That I knew like I could really Do this shit Yeah I know TV Would make you Assume that You know what I mean Like You can't be successful Outside of TV Then when I moved into Atlanta Which Atlanta's not a tattoo town For anybody I didn't know that Nah It's not a tattoo town And that shit Boom like that I felt almost Like A satisfied feeling Right Because so many people Doubted me Especially in my camp And that's what And then to see people Reaction So like When I opened up shops It was like It was almost Like an adrenaline rush And that's what Kept me going And going and going Because I wanted to get people That I wanted to inspire people To understand Like Most of the time They tell you The only time you could gain Financial wealth Is Playing sports Or music That's a black man Definitely And I'm showing them Basically I'm doing this With some tattooing I ain't the smartest man In the world It's way smarter black men Than me Y'all can do it too I love that So who were Three of your favorite Celebrity clients? Like what were Three of your favorite Celebrity tattoos That you did? Damn I'm gonna have to say Why are you really Gonna put me on the spot? I have Well no I only have a guess Of who you gonna say One of them Of all time DMX I knew that was that one No, DMX But Rich Homie Kwan He comes in the streets Really? Yo listen He did a whole performance In the shop It was six people In the tattoo A bunch of women I think from Arkansas He went to the one in Atlanta? Yeah, in Atlanta And he Put on A whole Show He was in there Doing a Kwan? Yes But he loves He loves performing Is like that That shit was funny And then That's so interesting Designer was cool too Okay He brought in the pandas Shout out the style again There you go And You said three, right? Yeah Okay, I was gonna keep going Got to have some Interesting situation Okay, so what's the What's the most Interesting celebrity Tattoo story you have? Money bag, yo Money bag Is crazy, yo Is he? Nah, not like crazy Like that He's just a cool dude But you know what I mean You know when you get with him You with him with the whole day Okay So what happened was Went to his tour bus to tattoo To my man James He had one of his baby Mom's at the time And we supposed to tattoo So we sitting there Doing the design And all that She's like, oh shit I got a show I bet, let's go So we go Go to his show He tears it down I forgot where it was It was in New York Then I had to go back To his bus And tattoo And I did like Several tattoos I did the joint on his face With the arm, the knife I did his hand Really? Yeah, I did a couple tattoos On him So when he went to He did the show With the rap on He did the show With the rap on Nah, I did it afterwards Oh, I thought You started And then you had to stop Okay, got it I was with him No love Oh, that's me I'm sorry I apologize I thought I turned everything on I'm not the curses person I told him Fucking call me My bad Nah, he did it after See, I was with him from 12 And the afternoon To like 6 in the morning Ooh Yeah But it was fun I got to live like A rapper for a day How was that? I ain't gonna do that No, I ain't with him Nah Rap a lifestyle now for you? Nah, not for me Why not? I can't keep up I got to go to sleep Nap nap time after a wild baby Nap time? They don't take naps? I think they take naps No I feel like they sleeping naps That's the problem, probably Yeah, probably But no Now when I was with him He was up up He made like 3 soon Did a video Yeah, yeah But Money Bag Yo was successful In this music shift So I definitely understand why So what advice would you give To young black men That may be in the streets That, you know, have a bigger vision Like you did But aside from like the whole Keep working harder thing Cause I feel like everybody Tell them that Yeah, it should bullshit Anybody keeping it I'd say Whatever you strive You want to do You first got to learn Financial literature You got to learn about shit like that Because at the end of the day No matter what your dream is You got to have funding for it And if you don't know What to do You fucked Like I had to really I really had to learn that Like later on down the line As I have been Like I'm taking my own money To fund these shops But I could have just got some money Shops and kept my own damn money Like it's just so much shit that you learn And so with money that I wasted To learn this And if I was younger Like if I was 20 And knew all this shit God I'd be a billionaire by now So you learned from trial and error I had to learn from trial and error And then learn it from other people Like accountants tell me Why you do this Why you didn't do that Right You could have got a break on this You could have got a break on that And it's just like Yo, why you ain't do your credit Why you don't got business credit You got so much money going through the bank And you don't have no business credit It's like simple shit like that It's like No And then stupid shit Like thinking cash is king When we live in a digital Yeah A digital financial society Where credit is king So it was like You got to learn certain shit They definitely systematically keep that out Of black people's hands So Black people go educate yourselves Financial literacy Very important So I'm not sure if you've ever heard him say this But a little baby says That the reason that he doesn't have any tattoos Is because he felt like He knew that one day he would have You know the right amount of money to be In the right rooms with the right people And he didn't want them To look at him Right So with tattoos just now Becoming acceptable Like in the workplace Like in a corporate workplace Do you feel like your tattoos May keep you out of any rooms with anybody Like do you feel like they Affect your business at all See The difference is right When babies say something like that Is Babies from The south Where it's basically Christian based They shunt They shunt them Amongst stuff like that You feel me In New York People don't be caring about tattoos They don't care about tattoos in your face As long as it doesn't say Fuck the world And some crazy shit like that Nah But I just feel like After a while As you get older And you want to get into those rooms It is going to be more difficult Do you feel like it's been more difficult For you personally Or have you You have an experience like that Nah Because people know My track record My track record speak for it So I could walk in with a Hanna mask And say Booga Booga They still gonna come fuck with me Because they know my track record is Booga Booga Yeah, Booga Booga Okay I guess your track record is Very strong If you can walk in the room And say Booga Booga Yeah it is Because I be knowing what I be talking about When I come down to business I wish it I don't know about business My mom and my pops They told me very well Okay period So do you have anything Outside of just owning the shops Like are you into any other Business ventures That you would like to share I got a truck in business I got a whole bunch of real estate out there Okay And shit I got a couple other Mom and business ventures I can't talk about right now Yeah I could tell by that laugh It was a little devious Yeah it was So Do you have What do you suggest that Black men get into As far as business is go That right there As black men I don't feel like See I'm kind of different Because I always listen to other like Successful people And it don't matter black or white I just feel like You should always get into Something that you love Because you won't feel like It's um It's a job Yeah Or a career Yeah This is something that you love doing So you won't pay attention To the hours or more So it's like I could tell someone Oh you're getting into production Getting into this But if you don't have the love for you You're not going to be successful in it So if you love Sowing Fucking scars Yeah So the best scars You can get Sell it Sell them Get into them Do something But at the end of the day Do the best at what you Love doing 100% So we're going to play a little game Oh shit Okay We're not going to talk About none of my exes right Yeah it's ex versus ex You got to pick one What the fuck I knew it I knew it I knew it was going to be Something like that man Yeah I knew that man You want to play You going to pick I'll pick Oh shit I'm not even going to play a lot of games Not that spicy But I like your energy Okay good So We're going to do this or that Tattoo edition So I'm going to say two people And you want to tell me Which one of those people You feel like has the better tattoos Okay Okay So first one Is Drake Versus NBA young boy Oh that's easy Drake Why Drake Drake The quality of his tattoos Is way better than the NBA young boy Okay And plus he likes getting this So you can do a lot of other shit You can do a lot of other shit They like the same complexion Nah Nah Alright Maybe I'm blonde You're a little color blonde Alright They definitely not the same complexion But it's okay Okay Next one is Cardi versus Lotto Cardi Cardi got that You see You see that tattoo He got that tattoo At the end he just It comes from the thigh To her That's the shoulder That's a different type of paint And one sitting Nah She different Yeah She bodied that Okay Next one Gucci main versus Chris Brown Phew Hmm Well Well Well I'm gonna have to go with Chris Brown On this one Because I don't know Okay So you know Gucci used to have The ice cream cone face You know You know You know You know The ice cream cone face tag And now Chris Brown Got the sneaker face tag So which face tag win Gucci Okay He was Listen He put a cone with Burr on it You can't lose Yo There's no way to lose You was the first motherfucker To do that shit too Yeah When motherfuckers like Yo he's crazy He's crazy And look how many people Got their face tattoos now So Nah Burr Nah Burr Okay Next one Lil Wayne versus Burrman And we can't see his head But you have to get About the star on that man's head Nah The star on his head Is important No listen I'm gonna go with Weezy Okay But they got the same Tattoo artist So it's kinda like the same But hey It actually makes my sense I go with Weezy Cuz Okay The last one Lil Dirk's India Tattoo Versus Christian's Blueface Tattoo Your Christian wins all day Yo listen man Listen That shit is on his ankle She put it on her throat On her throat Like that That right on her throat She a warrior She's a different type of warrior And she just got another one On the side profile On the side of her Like no She's different She wins She wins all day She's crazy woman of the century Yo He can't go nowhere You would like your girl To be crazy like that? Listen Crazy like that And he ain't leave That mean that shit good The crazier y'all the better it is Yo And honestly Every nigga like a little toxic joint Yo Okay Like you go through my phone Pushing my face And still be with me I love you baby Hey No Let me tell y'all what the key was It was a still be with me Let me tell you why I was the key Because if I find anything In a nigga phone That I gotta punch him in the face for He's done Nah what you doing You can't leave him He's the only person That's not gonna press charges on you So what you doing You ain't going nowhere I bet I won't Okay you ain't never been In a toxic relationship You tripping You're damn right You see He ain't gonna have you Doing shit like that His whole face Gonna be in your throat I don't even got a tattoo I'll be damned If I get one of them in And I don't think She had any tattoos Before that nigga Me Alright So how do you feel About the whole name On the body thing The face on the body Somebody just got My face on them Two days ago What Okay well Further down On this car I have are you single It was further down But I'm gonna ask now Wait that doesn't Just cause somebody got They face on me Doesn't mean I'm with them I had never been With this one before She just like me Oh it's a fan Oh Wow Alright But you know what's so funny Now I think about I've never Any woman I've ever dealt with I've never let them No one got my name No one Would you like that I don't think so Girls ask me before I don't No Would you get a woman's name What Okay Eyebrows up I got my daughter's name One of you got counts I love that But no Okay Face What Eyebrows even upper No Okay I got my mother's face That's it Love that They ask you Ask you more So when people come to you And they tell you Like I'm trying to get My husband name Right here Darryl Do you put your input in No You're just giving What they want Because it's like this Right I'm not gonna be the one To sit here And get to know Love is cool Like I'm always gonna be the bag I tried this before I was like And I sat there Move down Like Please don't do this And listen Me taking money out of my pocket I'm sitting there Don't do this Like why Because It's like a jinx Like once you Get this Motherfucking name Tattoo on you Something's gonna happen And something Had to happen For you to come here And get this tattoo right now I mean maybe They just love each other that much No If you get the backstory If you get them separated You already know You don't see them fucked up Bro She called me out I just gotta get Make it real small Men are so embarrassing Yo so embarrassing But then the women Come right behind That piece of shit I had to make it Make it small See it Because You know what I mean I'm gonna have to cover This piece of shit Name It'd be both of them I'd be sitting there Like I just told y'all This shit When you get together Maybe I love you It's forever And then I'd be Just so you got problems Covering it up Yeah I used to do that Do this shit Listen She used to piss me off When I tell you not to do something You don't listen to me You do it It ain't gonna fit Your Gemini is showing Put it away My bag So do you give your input At all on any type of tattoo Like if somebody Brings you a drawing Or something And they like hey Yeah if it looks stupid I'm not gonna put my name Behind this shit And I'm not gonna do a face Tattoo on somebody Who I feel like Is young And don't have a career Or something like that That's very noble Yeah I'm not gonna do shit like that Because they still Your season did this And my season should have known better And they right Like I don't do shit like that If I'm willing to do Your family I'm not gonna do it to you Oh That's a really good mentality Not money hungry We love that I'm not greedy Period On Instagram You posted That your whole face is over Uh huh You stand by that My what Your whole face Yeah I should over with Okay I feel like that's what Get me in trouble Like I'm cool with business shit But if you don't win me man I'll be having problems man I'm just leaving you alone I'm not a good character I'm not a good judge of character Oh So I commit that And once you commit your problems You're halfway there That's my problem The other half is fixing it Yeah And that's what I'm doing That's why that whole face Shit is over I'm good Okay It sounds crazy Like some people don't believe me I'm really like I'm chilling So what have you learned From your past relationships That you feel like You would definitely rectify Moving forward You just hit me I just said I learned That I'm a bad judge of character Okay but see That puts it off On the other person That's not real accountability It's accountability To know that you're picking them But you're not identifying What you're doing wrong Oh well I'm doing wrong I just said I'm picking them Okay No Um Because See to say that Would mean that Every relationship failed Because of them No it'd be me too So then what the hell You'd be doing What did you learn I just told you I'm bad at picking them It'd be me too Like alright Right Let's break it down Right Please I work too much Okay I work way too much Okay I commit that to Any relationship My goal That's why My goal is not In line with most of their goals Like After a while Like not even while Women Their goal is always That marriage Me I can't get married To them I'm wealthy I don't see The point of it If we can have A big ass way And do us What the fuck We ain't married for We can stay like this For a while Let me go chase the bag Some people Don't have the patience For that shit And I really Don't have the patience To make you see And understand Like every single one Of my exes I told them where I'm going And every time they leave I get to that point And be like Damn I ain't think you're Gonna do that Yeah cause you wasn't Wanting to wait And I'm not The type of person To chase anymore So I commit Like some of the times I could have sat there And played the Romeo shit Bring the boom box out Baby please take me back But that's just the same Me The only thing I'm chasing Is money So you don't feel like You could have maybe Handled the women differently Like I'll handle them now Cause I know I don't know I just feel like There's always room for improvement No there is always room For improvement Like with me now I always leave it Like yo listen This shit ain't working out I'm never the one To say you're not Gonna catch me cheating You're not gonna Nah Yo listen This shit ain't working out You feel me Like that's it We can't And be like Why why It'd be a build up This shit If I had a situation I'm not feeling this shit no more Most of the time People can't understand That shit Or respect it So you're like All the way in All the way out Yeah When I'm all the way in I'm all the way in When I'm out And I'm not gonna sit here And dangle you around And be like Yo listen I love you baby Then I got Three other girls Then I'm seeing them I'm not Cause that's just I feel like When my mom was always telling me You lie to somebody You scared of them I ain't scared of nobody Somebody just tell you the truth Sometimes even It does hurt your feelings Okay So your skin care routine You made that Or did it come from a woman Do you have one Let's start there Cause you said I don't You don't have a skin care routine Nah That's actually very Interesting to me My mother used to Ask me that shit Nah I don't have a skin I don't like What scrub my face And shit like that Use Well okay So I know a bold guy And he used to Exfoliate everything And he used to Always keep it together Nah And that's what you give me You give me the Keep it together All the way around I never had that problem Like even growing up I never had acne Wow I never went through That stage of pimples Nothing Men don't get shit Nah All y'all got his gas Yeah that's about it That's it It's crazy I never went I definitely thought You was gonna tell me You got your skin care routine From a woman I drink a lot of water though I drink a lot of water But nah I be forgetting to clean My face sometimes Wow I know It sounds crazy Some men live the life I swear Shit it's nuts So I see you got A Halloween party coming up What you gonna be following See I don't know I'm still Up in the air Cause my first costume People like Nah You bugging What's the options If you wanna share You might wanna pop out I don't know Nah I see the I be the pope Bane I want to be Do the Joker But I don't think a black joker Be nice And then there was another one But nah If you're the pope You gonna wear the thing on your head Yeah I got that Like a whole thing I even got I even got I even got the cross With the staff So I could walk around Oh shit Yeah but you know Why you got that on hand Did you buy it Or did you decide Like did you buy it For costume purposes and decide Eh Or you just got that in your closet I wanna plead the fifth on that Because I just feel like You just cornered me And you just asked me One question and left it To another question I had nothing to do with it You didn't say Do you have a sex dungeon With weird ass costumes in it No You asked me Why I'm being for Halloween That was the sin Okay So do you have a sex dungeon With A bunch of clothes I plead the fifth again Because I don't even understand Why we talking about my closet Sex dungeon I'm talking about my costumes Right but Who the hell just got a pope Costume on hand Me And I gotta get to the bottom Of why I like dressing up As different things sometimes Okay In different occasions Sounds like blasphemy to me But we can move on If you want Yeah that's why Everyone keeps saying But hey You got your fetish And I ain't got mine We gonna leave that one Right where it's at So what does life look like For you after black ink And I mean like The stores Not you know Like what do you What's your angle Where do you want to end I mean I'm still franchising Black Inks Okay Now that I'm not on The black ink crew show It gives me more Reach to do a lot more Things Because I got a lot more time So now I'm franchising Because I still want Black ink in 56 But instead of me Owning every single one Now I'm giving people Options to buy it Oh wow That's buying And then I also Still have my own Which I'm putting together Some shows right now Because I'm not going to be Out of TV for very long Okay I don't want to be In front of the camera You want to be behind the scenes Yeah I want to be Behind the scenes So what type of shows Are you venturing into Or that's TBA No no no I'm doing everything I'm doing everything From cartoons To reality TV To even scripted shows That's buying So it's like There's a whole Munch of people Doing road books Street Street books I'm reading them now I'm putting together a script And I'm basically Going to be making these movies And selling them So like the Amazon That's lit Or the other shit Because everybody Got some type of story And stuff like that And I just feel like Reducing some of these Shows I get to The place I really Want to get And just sitting On Black Ink Like I really Want to get to Tyler Perry status Really So do you feel like TV Is one of your passions At this point? Yeah cause You know Being on TV For ten years Is basically taught me The whole game Like it taught me Like where the real money's at Where you don't have to Sit here and Fucking work Every day Learning that Content And certain things Is gold Instead of just Be like Oh this is just for TV This is just for Instagram Like certain things Is just like You learn The value Of certain things Much quicker You can get it Right And with me it was like I seen My production company When he first got Black Ink Go from like The office of this size To like three floors Oh shit And on 42nd Street Where that red lobster's at In Times Square And I mean three big floors And The CEO He went from Probably a million there Like one million In less than ten years In eight years Went to a value of Two hundred million Sheesh And that's just him We not talking about his company So that showed you How much money Is in production So with me now Is like this Most people As Black people Want to sit there We in sports By the owner Gets most of the money We In music With some big executives Most of the money Yeah This is the only time That this is kind of fair game For his production Because now there's outlets And platforms That you can get That advertising money That all these big networks Live off and survive off You can now get a percentage off So it's different Because none of us Black Ink ever got No kind of any damn commercial money Because the Lord knows If we did I'll be on some bullshit right now So you mentioned the execs What music Are you listening to right now? I'm still in my down south shit It's crazy You're not listening to New Yorkers? I do But I just feel like They're following down south Right now You feel like the drill scene Follows the down south? I feel like the drill scene Is kind of Was refreshing When pop smoke was on But it was like It just got to water damn You know There's a new drill rapper every week And he's dying the next week It's like I can't really get behind it And maybe because of my age too But I really I really I don't know Like the last real good pop Really is pop smoke And Fabio And that is like Who you think is nice? I really like Be Love Be Love is good But I'm waiting for his next hit I really like Kenzo be a whole lot I think Kenzo be is alright But I'm still waiting for To have How can you say See with that type of There's no There's one way There's no like No variant Like I want to hear another flow Really? I think There's no versatility And like A Jay-Z He'll sit there and rap fast Then rap slow Then starts singing 50 Hooks this That like there's no verses Like I grew up on New York rapping So when I hear shit And I was like Where is this coming from? Like Jadakiss Like Mace These motherfuckers Was hook killers Like they're hooks No one ever made hooks like them And then the lyrics They go on and now you hear Da da da da da da Shoot to be crib Uh uh Shot to be a mother Like what? Alright That's what's up Is that your impersonation of drum music? Yo that's how it should be sounding to me And then these will begin Da da da da da da da You're like word Is that how you dance to drum music? Nah I don't dance to that shit Yo I ain't You dance? No You don't be in a club dancing? Hell no You hold up a wall? No I sit there and just chill I hate that for you Why? Because you're supposed to be in a club Having fun Niggas don't do that in New York And I hate that for them as well This is what you're talking about Like only time That you really gotta have fun Is like another state That shit is not I feel like You gotta be Somebody gotta break the habit So the same way you said With the black men And the reception Somebody gotta be the one to be vulnerable Somebody gotta be the one to get up in the club And dance Personally I dug you in the club And nobody not gonna tell me nothing You a female Niggas don't care I've danced battle I've dug you battle A man in the club I bet you have And he lost right? Of course A caveman Cause he He's going against A period Listen Y'all dancing Y'all been double dutching And trained to move y'all feet In certain ways Men can't So at the end of the day I'm not a battle No woman, no dancing I feel like We don't gotta battle You're a cheetah for that You're a cheetah for that You knew you could be him I just feel like You knew the eyes Was with you You like fucking Was smoking right in front of everybody Nah For one I don't initiate battles That's number one Have you seen like Number two Okay Ooh Put that gem in our way What? I'm not knowing How you got that from me Look at you Look at your demeanor now It's like I said that And that just clicked like No Cause I'm not an instigator Okay If you say it now And I'm not talking to people Saying it Cause people don't say that to me People don't say it Like If people say you're a cracker You're a cracker If you're an instigator You're an instigator But you didn't hear that from me Oh Start dancing in the club Tell the people where to find you Tell the people Tell the people what your Instagram means What your plans are Seize the black ink We love that All right Seize here Gemini Aquarius energy was a lot We out