 I wanna talk about Kanye real quick. Yeah, you know, that's a touchy subject to talk about Kanye these days. But I think there's some important things to be said. So we're not gonna get into some of the Kanye conversation, but what I do wanna talk about is this part of it right here. So I'm, you know, read this article and it says, this is the craziest part. But know what, let's skip to this. He doesn't have the Adidas deal, right? Anymore. And what, he lost Gap too, right? Yep. All right. So just days ago, the rapper, what? The rapper come from, rapper, who writes stuff like that? The rapper come fashion entrepreneur, Kanye West challenged Adidas to drop him following a week's long barrage of anti-Semitic remarks made on social media and in national media appearances. Right? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Guess what? He gets dropped. Now, let's start with this headline. Billionaire no more. Kanye West's anti-Semiticism obliterates his net worth as Adidas cuts them ties. Now, it's a couple of different angles, but let's start here. The one main reason I wanted to even bring this up was because I saw Nori did the interview, the drink chance interview with Kanye, right? Yeah. I did not see it. But Kanye said some wild stuff, apparently, because then Nori had to go on an apology tour, right? Yeah, and take it down. Oh, see, I didn't know it was taking down. Yeah, he took it off the channel. And you can still find it on YouTube if you search hard enough. Yeah, but like, no, he took it off his channel, yeah. It doesn't matter. It's supposed to even worse than I thought, right? And like, my thing is, initially, you're just thinking, oh, yeah, Kanye said some wild stuff, right? You know? And it makes sense. It all makes businesses, but like, oh, he said some wild stuff. And now he has to apologize for having on his platform. And people are like, oh, Nori got scared, as if he was responding to the media online. Not the media. The people in the comments, everybody just hating on him. Talia Kuali, like, just not hating on him, but just against what was said. So I see that. But then Joe Budden, I actually saw a clip with him. And it clicked for me, because I had only been consuming that side of things. And I still hadn't watched the clip. Joe Budden was speaking from an angle of, hey, man, when things like that happen, it's like, Nori, them calls that you get, right? Like this company, like your pod is in partnership with a vote, where votes in partnership with this was in the sponsorship for your podcast. And I'm like, oh, man, money. I did not think about Nori losing money because of this, all right? Or the potential to it was like, oh, yeah, I can't. I got to apologize. I can't have my people and my pockets in failure mode at the same time, right? So because obviously the people were against them. So it made me think about how today, we're in a day where artists, man, like, their awareness when it comes to partnerships and the things that they can say on platforms, this is just literally a different time. You know what I mean? It's really different. But then, of course, you go back to Kanye West. And it's crazy how fragile things like net worth are, all right, and these things that we big up. And I didn't want to say it in the moment because people always kind of consume your hating or something. But I'm like, when he would be saying he has a higher net worth and he's richer than some people, I'm like, it's not the same type of richer than some. We're talking about paper. And it's because of a big contract from Gap, a big contract from Adidas. That's in a contract that's different than my business is worth certain amount. Yeah, we're saying firsthand those contracts are fragile. Contracts are fragile. He knows because he done broke them. I was like, hey, man, maybe these contracts outside of the music industry, they're a little bit weaker. You know, the music industry is what I'm saying. I ain't clad. That's what the labels do. But that right there, it's like, dang, bro, you lost. I mean, you're not a billionaire just from a couple moves. You know, he's gonna be straight, whatever, bro. You got, you'll be all right. You know, there's plenty of people who will follow you no matter where you go. You know, he's big enough to have sheep. Every icon has sheep, but it's really interesting because he's gone this path of partnership after partnership after partnership. And you know, now I don't know if he saw when he said, oh, Sway was right or Sway had the answers. Yeah, I didn't see that. And it's just like, huh. I was like, well, that doesn't go in line with your whole, I don't listen to anybody who has less money than me either, all right? But we all fall for that too sometimes, all right? Whereas like, oh, you have to be ultra successful in this thing before I get any advice for you in this thing. All right, and I think there's truth to that, but there's also a nuance. Cause I remember talking to my trainer and I'm like, do you think, how do you feel about only having trainers that are like really swollen or in shape? And you can't be a good trainer without it. He was like, no, that's not true. And this is a various shape guy, but he was like, there's a lot of people who are just good for themselves, but they don't know how to actually train somebody else. Yeah, yeah. That's a completely different dynamic. It's a completely different skill. Cause when everybody's body is in your body and then your pain threshold what you're willing to do. People got different goals. It's a complete different goals. All that stuff is different. And it made me think about you honestly us, right? As a marketer, right? Like we see 50, 11 situations, all right? All these different types of artists, different types of genres, bad artists while they're bad and helping them as they become better, right? In their own development, artists who are already popping at a certain level helping with certain things. We've seen so much. And sometimes I've seen some artists have their singular success for them. And it can be great, like a great level of success not even like front and on it, but then think their path applies to the rest of the world. And other artists will buy into that. Oh, I'm going to listen to him cause he did this but it's like, yeah, but you're not him. You don't have his charisma, you know what I'm saying? Or you don't have his work ethic or you don't have the ability to mix master like worse. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Like there's so many different situations. And I think sometimes artists, rightly so pay attention to successful artists, right? There's an allure to it, but just because they swole don't mean that they can help you get swole. Yeah. And I mean, going back to the different goal thing it's like sometimes as this person is so far ahead of you they can't even remember how to relate to where you are in your position, right? It's like you're artists that just started making music today. Like the worst person to ask for advice on how to blow probably Drake. Drake, you know what I'm saying? It's been 10, 15 years since he was an underground artist. He don't know what to tell you. I don't know, man. Call your label and tell them to put up a marketing but that's what you need to do, bro. You're like, what? You know what I'm saying? But then it's like there might be these artists who maybe not as massively successful but as four or five steps ahead of you and he or she can more closely remember like where they were in your position and give you good advice that can help you get to where they are. Like, yeah, I might not be able to take you to a 10 but I can get you from a one to a four. You know what I'm saying? Once you get to four, you in the game you can start figuring out yourself, make your own path all that stuff, you know? And I don't know, man. I just always go back to the goal things. I remember thinking about like the mastermind thing we did, you know, Sam talking about how like, you know, like I don't want this, you know what I'm saying? 100 or whatever super massive business like some of the people I've coached, you know what I'm saying? There are people out in the world that make 10, 20 times what I make because that's what they want. That's not what I want. So it's like, it could be easier to go like, oh man, you ain't making 30 million a year while I'm gonna listen to you. It's like, well, I have the ability to do it. I just don't want to do it, you know what I'm saying? Because I got, I got different goals and a lot of R's falling there, bro. So many R's are like, you know, you might say like, man, you're not number one on Billboard, you know what I'm saying? You didn't have a top, a number one album while I was listening to you. It's like, man, I could do it. You know what I'm saying? Of course, if they possibly do it, that's not what I want. I don't want to have to play that same game that those R's have to play. But then the small R's are looking to go like, you don't know what the fuck you talking about. It's like, no, you got different agendas, got different goals, you know what I'm saying? Exactly, and I took the left where you might've wanted to take a right, but that left was good for me. And there's just some personalities where it's like, they're just not good for the teaching, right? Yeah. A lot of artists, like, they want to pay attention to themselves. They need to pay attention to themselves so it's hard to give true attention to that other product. And they don't know because sometimes, well, some of them, especially from a more label era, it's like, it was so much going on around you that had nothing to do with you. It was for you, but it had nothing to do with you. In terms of you weren't involved in the process, little things. And then we know a lot of artist-manager relationships where managers are protecting from hearing certain things in certain lines of communications and things. So artists are receiving filtered information and that's not even to their fault sometimes because sometimes people are doing it because they think that's what the artist needs. And then, of course, there's people doing them illicitly, but there's some who are just like, nah, it's better for the artist and their emotion to keep them in their emotional state. So you have to be a pretty even-headed person when you get information for them to continue to do that. Otherwise, you're gonna be like, oh, that's probably best. I don't overwhelm them or offend them. I blow the whole spot up. Yeah, blow the whole spot up nuts. Next thing you know, they can't perform for the show in three hours, right? So it all makes sense. But, and you know, Sam is different too, because you know, it's like Sam, I don't wanna make any more money than this, this way. He's like, yeah, I went to 35 million a year. I decided to go down to six million over here, but I'm building this like future billion dollar company. So it's like, it's a different, but I'm not yet, but you can look at, oh, you're not making this amount of money this way any more over here. Yeah, cool. But again, like you said, I applied it to how I want to. His life seems so relaxed. Exactly, bro. Exactly, bro. He got like a four person team, five person team or something, bro. Exactly, exactly. So, I mean, we get to this from Kaye West, but like to even bring that like back full circle, you know, I think like Kaye is in this really interesting spot right now where I think many of the people who are still acting as if everything he's like, he never does anything or says anything questionable, right? There's still some of those people left, but many of those people, especially the ones where artists still don't recognize how unique his scenario is. You can't follow that path. Yeah. It's like, and I know you're inspired by it. I, because look at him doing X, Y, and Z, but it's cool to also see, hey, there's some consequences because I think people have only seen the allure to it and don't understand what it comes with on the other side of it at the same time. If you're about that life for real, for real, of I'ma just say and do whatever I want to, like Kaye has been, bro, he's so intelligent with his positioning because to me, Brad, and maybe because, you know, I mark it, but I see him as a marketer first damn near. And like, he would hate to hear that. Oh, I don't like marketing. You know, him and Travis, bro. Say the same bullshit. Oh, I don't like marketing, but y'all market. That's all you do. I don't like marketing motherfuckers I've ever seen, but that's one of the best things to say. Hey, I don't market, bro. It just happens. Yeah, it just happens. So you feel like it's all from this great inspired place, no intentional planning, but the shit is so specific and detailed. It's no way that this is not planned. Everybody's called out your formula. Oh, I'm coming out and you're starting to do X, Y and Z type of things. That's pretty clear. You're not doing it for no reason, right? So there's a formula that's always been there and to be pop, right? Kanye compared himself to Michael first, like Michael Jackson. And now he compares himself to whoever's big at the time, right? Bad Bunny. I think he was the one who told me about that. Somebody told me he compared himself to bad Bunny. I ain't, I don't want to be like that. That's crazy. Whoever's the hottest person in your mind right now, I'm them. That was it. That's such a wild comparison. Bruh, because whoever's the top, whoever's at the top, Bruh, I want to be there right there with a Steve Jobs, Bad Bunny, Elon Musk, like whatever, right? That's such a crazy comparison. Oh, but that may be lose my thought. But hold on, where was I? Damn it. Great marketer. Oh, great marketer, right? I wanted to bet. So if you want to be pop, right? The best pop. Hey, Michael Jackson, he was such a genius marketer. And he doesn't get credit enough for it. And like their ability to want to take things from other places, because Kanye West forever has just been like, hey, I'm gonna take it from some other place and then be the one who gets clout for it by introducing it, right? It's not that he doesn't bring any innovation, right? But he's not necessarily an inventor, right? He's not necessarily the craftsman in every area that he gets credit in, right? Which is fine, right? He's a producer, right? EP in many ways. Yeah. Right? Yeah. But that was what Steve Jobs said. Like he had that quote, right? I don't play an instrument. I play the orchestra. Like when the code is that, that's what I'm saying. There's a code, that's what I'm saying. That's a bar. If you look at Michael Jackson, but if you look at all the stuff he did, like it's literally the playbook for decades to come that people didn't even get a chance to truly capitalize on and start capitalizing on until like now. Yeah, because socials, they didn't have socials. They couldn't spread. You really look crazy because it's like, what are you doing this for? You look crazy. And so the understanding aesthetically of branding, right? You know the glove, you know the hat. We know the, like the postures that he would do with certain dance moves, kick up the leg. There are so many single parts of his brand that you know would be Michael Jackson. You wanna talk about Halloween costume, right? And just, or someone, it could be a swole dude that looks nothing like him. You know what I mean? Got the hat on, you know. Got the hat on, you know. Got a glove on, you know. He just does a kick, you know. Does this, you know. Thriller move and you know, right? And then collaboration. He's done this in multiple videos with the one that like, I think is most known and clearest to see. There's some other videos, ridiculous though. I don't even know the name of the song. But the, remember the time? The one where they were in Miami. Though he was a mummy, right? They were in Egypt, that's what it was. They were in Egypt. There's the king and the queen. Like, he comes up to perform for the king and the queen and he tries the king by like flirting with his girl, basically. You know what I mean? They turn into some dust and disappear. So they can't, they can't get him, right? In that video, you got Magic Johnson. You got so many different people. I think Arsenio Hall's in that one. But he has like person after person after person type of people that were not anywhere near that industry. So many collaborations. So we are the world, collaboration. Now, social media era, people are like truly understanding the impact of collaboration. He was doing it where it was like solo. If you look at the references, there's not many people in that era that you see that collaborate to that level on that scale. Like pulling people from all these different spaces and places to collaborate. So it's just, it's really interesting to see like, I mean, he was like studying clothing in Japan and then integrating it into his like suit, like little bands like all these little things like the moonwalk wasn't his dance. He took it and introduced it on a pop scale. Wait, for real? Yeah. I know that. No, that's not him, bruh. Oh man. He's nothing. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, man. Like G is a marketer, bruh. He's a marketer. Like he's a true artist too, producer. Like, you know, he was a great artist still. Yeah. Like what kind of you doing all the time? He will take it. Maybe in some, many cases improve it to, you know, to be fair, but presenting it on a larger scale in a great fashion and get it going. That's what pop is. Now I feel like, you know, they call Michael Jackson a king of pop. I don't know how much pop existed before Michael. I feel like from my reference point, then like, you know, young person study of history without like reading a scholarly article on history of pop, Michael Jackson seems like he almost like invented or validated, validated pop and made it a legit genre. Oh man, I know what you're going to. Hey, no, no, no, hey. I don't know where you thought I was going to. But no, he feel like he made it almost like a legitimate genre to continue to chase. And just like in basketball, they're always chasing Michael Jordan and trying to find a next him because of the marketability, the success of it, all that stuff in the marketing machine that it is from a capitalism standpoint. People were chasing, oh, shoot, we need another pop star, pop star, pop star because Michael was taking a rock and R&B and all these things and- Oh God, yeah, oh God. That was, they were calling him the king of pop for a reason. When back then, I mean, I feel like now it's more, there's a, it's more generic and- People don't care as much. People don't. I don't wanna say care as much. Like there's a, almost a negative stigma on pop now. And I'm sure there's people in those individual genres that probably were against Michael, right? And sometimes like, if it was like you're a genre that you care about, like everybody else loved it, but man, that's not real rock or that's not real, whatever. I'm sure there was some of those people that existed. But the reality is, you know, pop was legitimately by definition at the moment, popular music, right? Yeah. So it's like, how can you, how can pop be anything bad if it's just popular and popular is because a lot of people like it, right? But now there's a formula for pop, right? And it became, it's like a true genre, which then, you know, now it has a stigma, it feels generic, it's less sold to it, wherever you're coming from. But no, anyway, man, like Michael, we can do a whole breakdown, but like that dude, marketing-wise, the shit that he was doing, I'm still fucked up about the moonwalk thing. That's crazy. I really didn't know that, bro. I did not know that. Man, he did not, he really did not, man. Oh, that's funny, that's funny. Yeah, I remember when he found it, when I found it, I had to cope a little bit. I'm like, dang, that's crazy. By the way, fun fact for y'all, Michael Jackson did the moonwalk in Pasadena for the first time, you know? Shout out to Erko. He just learned that Erko got all the facts, bro, about things that happen in Pasadena.