 We gon' do it how you want it, boss talk, yeah, everybody on it, boss talk, it's a- Check it, check it, check it, it's a unique house, it's your boy, E-C-E-O, and I'm here with the lovely official, Mr. Mako, what's going on? Nothing, nothing, my dad walk on. Man, man, hey, got a little sleep, did a little work yesterday? Yeah. Now we back, man, it's going down, man, say, man, we got a guy in here today, man, I've been knowing him for many, many years. We have been knowing him for many, many years. We've both been knowing him for many, many years. He's been a friend, he's pretty much guided us in the right directions as we went through this business strives of having our business over the years that we've known him, right? The clothing store, he's made great impact, man. Not only that, man, just in life in general, talking, man to man, having somebody to talk to, same kind of same age and everything, man, and talking about something. Check it, man, can y'all the sands in the building? Thanks, man, thanks for having me, man. Hey, man, what's going on, man? Come a long way, bro. Hey, man, look, man, hey, you, you go way, way back, she about to get all your information too. That's what she do. She, I kind of just, I'm all over the place, but she comes at you in a way to where she want to know everything in detail about Kenyatta Sands, right? Things that we've never known. Yeah, cause we, yeah, yeah, yeah, we, we, we dive in, man, we dive in, man, we dive in, man. Shout out, man. You put the, you put the good smile on it, you know, I got you, yeah, all right. Yo, man, just a, man, you, Los Angeles. LA, baby. Wow, man. And originally from LA. Originally from LA. Yeah, yeah. I mean, not like, you know, some people claim LA but live in Pasadena, like I'm straight up Crenshaw, Washington. Wow. Okay. And because the business that you're in, a lot of people were born somewhere else and moved there because of that business. Right. But you were born and raised and ended up in that business. Yeah, I'm, I'm well ingrained in LA, like seriously. So going back as a child, elementary school. Is that what you always wanted to do? No. In fact, I wanted to, when I was in high school, I went to Morehouse to become a lawyer. Wow. My dad was a big time lawyer in LA. Okay. Yeah, he was like the Johnny Cochran that nobody knew. He was a bad man, my jammin'. Like he was six, three, always had to pick hats, I always had to nice suits. So you wanted to be a lawyer only because he was a lawyer or he made you? Nah, I mean, it just seemed like. The life to live, you know, because we had LA law back in those days. So there was a lot of like law shows that made it look really exciting. And what was your mom? My mom was a social worker. Social work. Yeah. Okay. And they were still together? When what? Your mom. Oh, during that time? Yeah. I mean, it was when I was 13. When you were 13. Yeah. Okay. How did that affect you? That's a good question. Um, it's kind of like you love your mom, so you want to see her suffer. You know, your dad was doing things that wasn't good. And it was just, you know, for me, it was kind of like, all right, you know, it didn't work out. Yeah. We were delighted it worked out, you know, because we had a good life. But, you know, to see how she was, you know, going through it, it just didn't seem like something she was, you know, deserving to be. So did you move with her or did you stay with him? I actually moved with her. With her. So how many siblings did you have? I have two brothers and a sister. Two brothers and a sister. A younger older. And she had three children. My dad had another, another. One outside. Another son outside. After, before. Before the breakup. Before. Yeah. So that's, that's one. I mean, before us. Oh, before you. Okay. Okay. Yeah. We were the second, second round. Okay. Okay. So, um, she took all the kids with her. Except for the one that she, he had before. Yeah. Because he was 18 by the time I turned 13, while 13 was 19. So he, my dad was like, old school, like you 18, get out the house. Okay. Yeah. I had a guy on here. Sean Cotton. Funny you brought that up and he said that, uh, he, he, matter of fact, he made this statement on Vlad as well. He said that he don't feel like it was good, uh, that parents kicked their son out at 18. Cause sometimes, cause they're not. Any of their children. Yeah. Any of cause he feel like, you know, they still have some maturing to do. So it's not good that we were the only culture that forces our children out. Right. Cause everybody else stay, you know, let them stay until they get established. And he said that because his mother and father divorced, it caused, it was better because it made it to where he was able to establish, say cheese. And he helped, you know, um, pay the bills for his mom and her as, you know, so that saved him some money. He didn't have to pay all the bills. He just paid some. Correct. He was able to stack his money up. But no, no, I don't want, I don't want to get off that yet cause I wanted to say that what, because he stayed in home in the house, he became, now he's a millionaire, but he stayed almost, he was 30. Got it. But, but I don't know if that happens with every kid. Like most kids. No, most black kids that. In the house. To the 30. A lot of Hispanics. It does. Think about the 30 year olds that you see staying with their mother. Usually it don't work out like that. Right. I mean, my, my brother kind of stayed with my mom for a minute, you know, on and off. But, um, the oldest one, yeah, it didn't, it didn't build well for him. You know what I'm saying? I mean, plenty of couches, plenty of people to try to find, you know, to live with. And the crazy thing about it, we had the biggest house you can imagine at the time. And I was like, dang, why do you have to look, why do you have to go? Yeah, yeah. And, uh, you know, him and my mom didn't get to get along with each other because it was, it was a very tragic situation. Like, you know, my mom, I don't know, was, I don't know if he was messing with my dad at the time that he was married to my brother's mom. But, um, his, his mom got murdered and, you know, there was suspicion that my dad did it. Wow. She was, she was sad, man, but she was, you know, he came home, found her tied up, dead. Wow. And so his oldest son, which was that's the mom's son, he felt that way as well. Yeah, they were just weren't getting along with each other. I mean, it was just like, you know, whether whatever store you want to hear, you want to hear your side, hear my mom's side. I mean, a lot of it's like, you know, he would kind of play her and vice versa, you know, um, but yeah, it was, it was a very odd situation because she had to take on a kid knowing that his mom's side of the family couldn't stand her. Wow. Wow. You know what I mean? So that was, that was difficult. And then at the same time, it's like, you know, because he, you know, he lived with us. So he grew, I grew up with my big brother. All right. You have a good relationship with him. Oh, he's great. He's an awesome dude. Okay. Love that dude to death, man. Seriously. Okay. Your mom is a strong woman to hear those rumors and still be in that relationship. You know, you saw the looking over your shoulder like, okay, is it going to be my turn? Well, yeah, but she obviously didn't think he did it. Okay. You know what I'm saying? But LA was, LA is crazy like that. You know, my dad. Rumors and stuff like that. I mean, my dad dealt with some very like, you know, being a black lawyer at those days, like, you know, the kind of client she would get would be them. And he did criminal law. He did everything. But criminal was part of it. So obviously, you know, he knew a lot of dudes that would, you know, that would do him some dash to the things. Right, right. According to my dad, he didn't do it. But you know, according to their side of the family, who knows. So how did the breakup, I know he said how did the breakup take a toll on you? But when I'm thinking about, because you said your mom, she endured some things. And so I'm sure you saw some things that led up to the breakup. Yeah. And I know that some people can be a product of past, you know, parents' relationships and that can become you. How can, you know, how did you see that and be like, OK, I'm not going to do that. Or, you know, because some people say I'm not going to end up in that. I'm not going to let my children become victim of the same circumstances. Well, um, OK, so, like, you know, part of the arguments were, you know, I had to do with my, my, my big brother. Yeah, I figured that. So there was some times, like, there were things that I saw that was like, OK, so one time I came home, you know, and my brother was preparing the house for a party. Oh, pay me five dollars. No, not the snitch, right? So of course I didn't snitch. Then, like, all of a sudden, it was a complete blowout argument. You can hear it down the block. My mom going off and my mom was like, look, I found some weed underneath the sink. So on and so forth, it was definitely a party in this house. My dad obviously asked my son, I mean, my brother, then he was like, nah, we didn't have no party. Did you snitch? And I'm over thinking to myself, like, damn. You know they're coming to you. You know they're going to come to us. They're going off. I mean, like, I mean, like, you lying about my son. You know, just that whole thing. And I'm like, man, dad, you wrong on this one. I did have to snitch, though. I know you snitched. I knew you snitched. And my brother to this day can't stand me for that. You know what I'm saying? He was like. Did he get his five dollars back? I said, maybe you could have paid me 10, but promise you, like, that was the one thing that, because my dad, you know, eventually had to go back to my brother, you know, give him a little something. Yeah, because he found out that it was, you know, he was wrong, right? He was wrong, yeah. So did you, okay. So you went to Morehouse to become a lawyer. Did you actually finish? I finished Morehouse. I actually went there and I took the courses that you would take to be a lawyer. Okay. I majored in poli sci and with a pre-law minor. And it was cool because you was able to study in different places, in different schools. So I went to, like, Atlanta University, which is actually part of the same campus. Okay. And took some business courses there. And there was a lot of, you know, because at Morehouse, it's a liberal arts school. So you're going to have to take all the classes as if you was in high school. So you take in econ, religion, you know, all those type of stuff. So there's a wide biology, everything. You would normally take in high school. You got to take there. Right. And then you have specific classes. So being part of poli sci, obviously. I mean, that's, it was cool because you was able to kind of, you know, get into the political side of the world. You know, I've actually went to DC. I can tell you the story of how I started the clothing. Yeah. I was about to say, because in the middle of you going to school and doing all of that, where did the fashion come into every year? So let me, let me, let me go back. And were you the flyest person going to be the best of how you dress? So let me go back a little bit. Let's backtrack a little bit. So in LA, we had a thing called bumper heads and Easties. So bumper head and Easties. What is that? Bumper head and Easties. So the West Siders, which we were, this is where I'll consider myself West Side. So if you're West Side of like, I don't know, like if you're just like West Side, you know what I'm saying? Over by Crenshaw, maybe West of Crenshaw. So we called, if you was West of Crenshaw, West Sider, but I lived West of Crenshaw at one point and then I also lived, just tap east of it, but whatever. So the West Siders was like, you had this whole group of kids that were growing up in like View Park, you know, Ladera, Baldwin Hills. And that's like the most, you know, financially, I mean, it's just the most, the richest area for black folks. So you had all these little fly little kids having parties at the house. So every house party that you went to, you would have like these big pools and these nice houses overlooking the whole city. You know, they all have views, parents have money. So you want to be part of that because I was just a fly seeing the being. So, but we were just into like fly stuff, just having parties hanging out. And then eventually dance crews became a big thing. So like there's like comedians like Alex Thomas that's probably like one of the ones that people know. But he's one of the guys I grew up with. You know, Alex Thomas is a comedian. Yeah, no, no, no. I'm thinking about this dance crew and about 85, 86. So when you go to 85, 86, then you're talking more like breaking. Yeah, yeah. What dance crew are you talking about? You talking about the 90s? So in our age, our age is like around that time. Okay. There's a period between like, I would probably say like 86 to like 90. 90. Because you figure, you know, 86, that's when you had the show come out. Mm-hmm. You know, Dougie Fresh. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Crush Grooving and all that. But see, like before that it's like it was breaking. Yeah. So you had dance crews that was breaking. Mm-hmm. You know, so all your little dance crews, we had one on LA too. My brother actually had a group called the Shake Shitty Rockers. But no, there was a moment right when I was hitting high school where we do these competitions. And it was a moment in time in LA, I promise you, LA was the fliest place to ever be. I'm telling you. Because it was like, you had the house parties, you had hotel parties, then you had these events at these places called like the Veteran Auditorium and all these big places. And so we started doing these dance competitions just to kind of give you an idea. If you remember Heart and Soul, I used to dance behind Bobby Brown. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay, so that, they kind of came at the tail end of it. So the whole running man and all that kind of good stuff. Right, right, right. So yeah, so they kind of came out of it. There was another guy named Oliver. It was Madonna did a whole video. I think it was called Justify My Love or something like that. One of those, one of those things. But anyways, so dance became a big thing. That's a soul train and all that kind of good stuff. So being, when we started getting into fashion, it was like having the suits with the straight, with the straight padded shoulders. Mm-hmm. So your shoulders was popping, then you had the white socks and then you had the shoes. So we were dressing, just to give you an idea where dressing comes from. So we were dressed as part of this whole crew. So it was more of a mod, like more of a mod suited. So we would go to Art Vox and buy a whole bunch of old suits, have them tapered up at the bottom to kind of emphasize the movements. So we had, so a lot of, like the cabbage patch, I don't remember the cabbage patch. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's all. A lot of the dancers. The prep. They didn't stop playing, man. So we were lit. So we was the first one that, yeah, the prep. Exactly. So we had like competitions, like really big competitions. Now a lot of people videotape them so it's not like something that's mainstream that you don't know. But if you was in LA, you knew. Wow. So we was the bumper heads because we can dance, right? So people, women associated you with your group more than you as a person. Okay. You know, so that's Alex from the Romeo. So Alex had a group called the Romeo's. There's all these fly dudes. You know, all these real super fly, I mean, super fly dudes. And so part of our dressing was we were super fly at the clubs, whatever. And then we kind of brought that to our individual school. Certain schools were already on it like Fairfax, but like Palisades was not on it. So they were just like, whatever, everybody just rock, you know. So, but the bumper heads were the dancers, super fly. The Easties, on the other hand, where the gangsters, the drug dealers and all that. And their gear was like, you know, Chuck Taylor's, you know, khakis creased, you know, looking like they just straight walked out of like, you know. And I don't want to break in on what you're saying, but during the time that you guys was doing these nice fly suits with the gang violence like it was during that time in the city, did y'all have to stay color coordinated? Yeah. Like I said, we weren't even nowhere. You see what I'm saying? Yeah, because they were in suits. So the suits, they didn't have the red or the blue. Well, we weren't wearing suits every day. So our day, our day, our daily dress was, was surfer. Okay. So we was big in surfer gear like Maui and Son, stuff like that. So we were T-shirts and shorts. And so a lot of stuff that kids wearing like have been wearing recently with the vans and all that. We were rock vans. We were like the tapered Levi's 501s and a T-shirt that was in a backpack. How did you get into the clothes though? So I'm gonna get you. Yeah, let's get there. You don't have to want to hear about this. So I had to be long-winded, but that's part of why I got into fashion because you had to be a fly guy at the club. Right. Number one. And then, so then went out, I got best dressed as a senior in high school. At the school, right. Already. Because nobody else at that school was dressing. Oh, I was good. So I had crazy sweaters. I had suits. I had, I mean not suits, but shoes. That was, that was dope. But I would, you know, put my thing together. So that's number one best dress summer. You know, but then I actually had an econ class in, in my senior year where they, where we like met a mock corporation. So we made a corporation. We sold stocks to people. So on and so forth. Really? So I was the CEO, I owned stocks and I was the, the, the contracted designer. So I designed the T-shirt, made money from that because the company had to pay me for the artwork. So you started doing all that stuff in high school. So I had a T-shirt and we made money and I was really good at it. I actually was good with business. My business, I mean, like seriously, that we even had a mock like a program that was dope because it would like, you know, it'll introduce new factors that you can add to your business to determine how you were going to be successful as a business. And when people think about LA, they think about fashion anyway. So it's like almost everybody who's in LA, they feel like you have something to do with fashion regardless. I mean, it was about being fly out there. Right. You know, I mean. And it still is somewhat, except for it's much more of a laid back style. Well, we had that part as your casual every day. But then like we had to, you know, go out because I got to tell somebody like, look, back in those days, it was a club everywhere. It was a 24 hour city until gang violence became the prevalent. And that was just, you know, you shook your head when you're like, are you serious? Like it didn't have to go there because people say the thing is this is why I don't glorify gangster rap. It's because I, at one point, everybody had their own little groove. You know, I mean, gang violence has always been going on in LA, but it was in his pocket. But once you kind of brought it to the forefront, then it became everywhere. And I was like, no, I needed to keep it where it was. But is it? It's not as bad as it used to be. Is it? I think in certain ways. Because we've been to LA. No, because we've been to LA, right? And we've driven down, you know, Crenshaw, certain things. But every time when we hear about those streets that make it sound so bad, like you can't even go down there and drive down there. It's not like that. It's just okay. It's like this. Like for one, nobody's dumb enough to want to walk around looking, you know, bloody crit. I seen a guy do it. Right? About three years. Remember I seen that guy on an all red with the beach cruises, with the red beach cruises? Yeah. No, those days. Back in the days, they used to, they used to, you know, rep their brands. Everybody was in red. Yeah, but I was before that drive-by. When that drive-by. Which drive-by was that? Drive-by's in general. In general? Yeah, that was just, seriously, just, you know, seeing the streets and just... Kill you. I remember those days. So that's why they stopped wearing their colors because they don't want it to be... Because it wasn't so much about the set. It was more or less like, you know, it became drugs. So you had crack. They came into it. Because you figured that came pretty big. And then all of a sudden, everybody's into selling drugs now. So it wasn't so much like... It's a business. There's no loyalty so much. Right. It's more about the money. Let me get back to these clothes, though, because I really am interested on how you were able to... Because you end up working with people like Carl Cannae and all type of people. Well, knowing them, you know, and during the same time period, because you didn't just get into these clothes, you've been really doing this. So that's what I want to try to tackle. You know what I mean? So I went to school and then around. So I figured I could graduate in 92. Okay. Okay. So I went to... So this is an interesting story. All right. So I went to D.C. for an internship. Befriend this guy. And that's for clothing internship? Or that was the law? No, I was... That was the law internship. That's for policy. So I went to the hills. I went to D.C. So I was... Julian Dixon was the congressperson I worked for as an intern. And I was probably the only one that got paid a stipend. So I got paid a little money to do it. And... But I befriended this guy, right? So then, like, it was a small world. So I'm hanging out one-on-one now. He's like, yo, we got to go pick up my friend because she's got all the connects in D.C. So we go over to this woman's house, right? Her name is Drew Dixon. Okay. You can look her up. She's actually pretty famous now. Go to Drew Dixon. Her mom was running for mayor, the next mayor, because at that time, you had Marion Berry. He was on an investigation for doing crack. Remember that? Okay. So I'm in the house. She's on the phone with my ex-girlfriend from high school. Mind you. D.C. on the phone. And this is L.A. compared to D.C. Yeah. So I'm in D.C. talking to her. She's talking to my... And they're sorrows. They're actually sorrows. They're going to the same college. They're going to Stanford. Mm-hmm. And then I look on the wall, I start noticing pictures of the guy I'm with, with her. Mm-hmm. So I'm like, well, first of all, you with my ex? Y'all cool? We seen each other? This is crazy. Wow. And you told him that, that's where that was your ex? We were just seeing her bugging like, yo, this is crazy. Like the chance... Right. You know, meeting each other was crazy. And going all the way across, you know, long story short, moms isn't being the next mayor of D.C. Oh, D.C. Yeah. So you can look her up, Sharon Prack Dixon. Okay. What was the daughter name again? Drew Dixon. Drew Dixon. Now she was the one who came out against Russell, I mean, Russell Simmons. Oh, okay. And the Me Too movement. Yeah. She's big in the Me Too movement. Okay. Russell won that though, didn't he? She was an exec at Def Jam and, yeah, so she's like, yeah, he did all kind of crazy things. Yeah, but I'm saying, but he won, right? I don't know. Just look at that. Just look at that. He's like, I'm... They dropped it. They definitely dropped it. I'm going to stay out of that one. I don't know. I mean... But anyway, so long story short, we hang out at a Greek fest. So we go to Philly, you know? So my ex-girlfriend comes out from L.A. to come and kick it with this. So we're all in Philly. So all together. So a friend of mine is like, hey, man, I need you to go watch this booth of mine for a second. I need to go and make a run, whatever. So I'm sitting here selling his T-shirts and I get a lot of cash within an hour. Wow. And I'm thinking to myself, like, this seems kind of fun. So as soon as I went back to Atlanta, I had put all my money in the books. I bought a keyboard because I like playing music. I bought a brand new keyboard. Then I put the money... Whatever I had left, I had $300 left to put on the T-shirt. And that was my very first T-shirt. I had a question mark on it. And in the back, I said, never question who I am. Black, strong, intelligent, and positive. Wow. That's cool. And so then... That's the first positive where? Yes, sir. Wow. And that's why you came up... And that's why you came up... I still have it. I still sell it. Yeah, I need that shirt. That's the one I need. I want it to mean something. And that's the one you see Will Smith wearing on my Instagram. He's wearing that one in orange. Yeah. Yeah. But that one blew up. I mean... Yeah, because it's what it says. Yeah. It's powerful. It was kind of a takeoff of public enemies. Never question what I am, God knows when I come up from the heart. So it's just never question who I am. You know what I mean? And that was... Because at that time, you got to imagine... It's hard to imagine down because we didn't have no black president. Wait a minute. You skated past the fact that Will Smith was wearing it. What... When he wore it, how did that happen? So it was an episode where him and Tutie was getting together. Did you place that on the show? That's when I was in LA. And then there was a stylist that took it and put it on there. Wow, that's dope, man. Yeah, we've had... I know Tupac wore some of your stuff as well, right? Yeah, I was actually there when Tupac did that. Wow. Yeah, that was cool. So in this game is really who you know. So knowing those stylists, they were knowing people who can get product placement on certain people. It was new. You got to imagine... You got to imagine there's no... In 91, there was no supposed black-owned brands, period. So we were the first one. It was me, cross-colors, African-American college lines. And then in Karkanae. Yeah, cause when you said the college line, that's what I was just talking to my brother about. Like, you don't see that vibe like on Martin no more like it was back then. That was in your face. You've seen the HBCUs being represented in a way to where it meant something, to have that sweater on. And I felt like we need to bring that back. Yeah, so it was a good time because that's when you consider the Renaissance of black businesses. Yeah. Black banks. Yeah. We had a black bank in Atlanta at that time, so I was putting my money in there. Then it was like, you had John Singleton who came out. So now he won. John Singleton came out and this is where he started wearing my hat because he came to Morehouse and he did a speech and I gave him a positive wear hat and he wore it everywhere. So that was always the name of your brand, positive wear. Yeah. So when I came out with the t-shirt, it wasn't positive wear then until I came back to LA that summer. So what was it? It was just a t-shirt brand. Just a t-shirt. Yeah, but it was just the idea was crazy. We had hats in and I'm telling you, man, I was selling those shirts like I could. Did you sell them yourselves? No, I had a seal screener. But yeah, I mean, that was, it was unbelievable. Then we eventually had hats and things like that. But then positive wear started up that summer of 91. And you came up with the name. Yeah, because it was positive was the name, was the bottom of that t-shirt. That's right. That's dope. So the one, I don't know if you have it in here, but the one with the target, right? That's the one I hand drew. Wow. And that started the whole, you know, again, that's a play on public enemy because it's like, you know, the target on the positive. But you know, again, it's like my play is visual. You know, you think it's something violent because that's what you gravitate towards. You like the violent story, but it ain't. It's focusing on the positive. Yeah. But I love the name of it because we need positive. Well, we do need it. Everything in this society right now. Right now we need it more than ever. Well, that's the one thing that runs true to everybody on this planet is positive and negative. That's how your consciousness works. Wow. You need a balance. I mean, I'm not saying negative is bad. This is a good positive bad, but it's like when you're imbalanced, that's when you have a problem. But again, is how you how you perceive that negative can keep you negative all the time. But if you perceive that negative as a stepping stone in growth, then it will turn into a positive. You understand what I mean? Yeah. I mean, life on this planet is about balance. The only thing is, is that, you know, it's like for me in my my latest crusade, you know, I mean, when I started back in those days, I was trying to explain was that, you know, we had a time where we didn't have any black history. You know what I'm saying? We weren't proud of ourselves because we've only taught and seriously, like if you did not go to a black college, your knowledge of black history was, you went from slavery to civil rights and to wherever you are right now. That's so true because they don't teach a lot of any of that in regular public schools. Yeah. I mean, you know, hitting figures was not a story that you learned until the movie came out. Yeah. Exactly. Let me ask you, going back to that Tupac that day, you know, I'm a Tupac fan. Yes, sir. You hear, Poc here, I get around Poc or this ain't a, I won't deny it, I'm a straight rider. It's not that Poc. We with the around and around, round we go. That's my favorite song. That's one of my favorite songs. That's the Poc we with, right? That's my favorite song. Where he was wearing your gear around that time or no? I want to say he moved on because this was like, this had to be like 93, 94. So how does that happen? How does that happen for him? No, how does that happen for you and him in the positive world? You know, the crazy thing about that story, it was at Andre Ryzen's house. Okay. So at the time, I had an investor, Mike Haynes, and he was the, he was a receiver for the Atlanta Falcons. Okay. So it was two guys. You had, you know, Andre Ryzen and you had Mike Haynes. And so obviously it was partners. So, you know, I guess maybe there was a conversation that went down. Oh, by the way, Tupac and MC Breed are doing a video at my house. Okay. Now this house is the same house that left eye burnt down. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Where it is born. Yeah. Okay. And the crazy thing is DOC is in that video. Wow. So DOC is over there. You know, left eye was probably somewhere around there. Yeah. Yeah. He's in the back dancing with a positive wear jacket that we gave him. Wow. And then if you look throughout the whole video, it's all positive wear out. But that was the first time I actually sat and met Tupac. What song was that again? Got to get yours. You got to get yours. I got to get mine. Yeah. He doing this. Yeah. Yeah. I know where you at. Yeah. I got you. So that's actually MC Breed's song. Yeah, for sure. But that thing was big. Wow. And you pulled up and now you make me want to go look that video. We don't see it. It's going to come up. It's going to come up when this video, when I skid it, is going down. Yeah. No, it's easy. The other thing about internet is that you type in Tupac. I mean, you name it. It pops up. You see him wearing a positive wear T-shirt. Which is cool. How does that make you feel? Because that's your accomplishment. It's a big accomplishment. Well, the thing is he's been probably the most notable transcended artists from the 90s till today. So even the young guys know Tupac. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, it's, I might tell you like, yeah, I had red man wearing it, but you'd be like, who's red man? Or I might tell you, I had positive K wearing it. You'd be like, well, who's positive K? You know, there's all kind of people that I've had wearing it. Like, you know, there was, remember that rump shaker video? Yeah. Just shake your rump. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's it. So the dancers that are on that video are wearing positive wear. Oh, really? You know, that's what I'm talking about, baby. So back in the 90s, he unlocked because, you know, at that summertime, it was constantly interviewing John Singleton. So he's always wore that hat. Wow. Wow. How important is it for a product placement when you have a clothing brand that you're trying to? Oh, it's essential. I mean, you got to have a lot of taste makers. At that time, you know, you had John Singleton, Will Smith was like mega, you know, I even had Jada Pinky wear on different world. Different world? Yeah, that's dope. When she was down, I used to actually, you know, we actually knew her. Wow. And it was crazy because I was looking at her and she was like, man, she is so fine. So fine. You liked it. Like, yeah, that's the one. She's so tiny. She's so short. Yeah, I'm trying to fit, but she just felt like she was shorter than tiny. I know. I know. Tiny short. Yeah, but tiny isn't tiny. But no. Because I don't know. I've met tiny, but I have never met Jada. She's probably a little taller, maybe. You think she is? Yeah, I think she's taller. Man. How did you, how did you make that happen? My brother knew her somehow. And then one day, I promise you, I was in her house in her apartment in LA. Oh, you had a house? And my friend, the guy I'm telling you about, you might have had an entanglement. No, no, no, no, no. But trust, like, I mean, honestly at that time. So hanging out with Jada is a big deal. What was going on in there? I wouldn't say I hung out, hung out. But I'm going to tell you, like, you was in her house? I was definitely in her house. I was dating her roommate. I think she was a cheerleader for the Lakers or something like that. Wow. Yeah, so that was cool. So we had reasons for having a career. And this was before her and Will got together. Of course. Of course. In fact, what was really interesting is that we used to do, we called it the black magic, and we set up our own magic show in the Mirage Hotel. So when they was actually courting each other, we were missing each other on the elevator. Wow. Because it was crazy because I met, you know, I mean, I was cool with both of them. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So I had a picture with her, me and her back in D.C. when we did black-ass ball in D.C. Oh, wow. That's cool. So we knew each other, knew of each other, but it wasn't like, I was like, hey, let's go kick it. You know what I mean? I got things to do. She got things to do. Of course. But it was a nice thing, but yeah, she was little. She still is. So I got to ask you this because, you know, I got to get to this top three artists of all time. I do that to everybody. And you a musician as well. How many instruments do you play? Drums and the keyboard. Wow. I'm not saying I'm nice on drums. I can play them. Yeah, but you can play them. Top three artists of all time dead or alive. Any genre? Well, I would have to say Prince number one. Prince number one? Why? Because he could play 27 instruments. Yeah. I do this. I mean, just the thing about from the fashion element, the dancing, singing, just the creativity and the fact that he's nice. Okay. Forcing instruments. What about number two? I would probably have to play Stevie Wonder. Wow, that's dope. First Stevie Wonder. And he should, as he should be. He should be on this show at all times, really. I mean, have you ever watched him play drums? No. You got to watch that thing that the Questlove just came out with. Really? Okay. Yeah, he's in there blind playing drums like if you close your eyes for a second, you swear you listen to a jazz percussionist. Wow. He was that crazy. And you dope on music as well. That thing just came out with Questlove. Number three. Lord of Mercy. I got to get that number three. That's always the hardest thing. I mean, I don't know. The first person that comes to mind is Michael Jackson. Okay. A lot of people do, Michael. Yeah. But that's how you're a real cat. So yeah, I get it. I mean, look, because the thing about it, like he has probably one of the best voices in the game. You know what I'm saying? On top of the fact, he can dance. That kid had a voice when he was young. Yeah. To the day that he died. To the day that he died. That boy. Boy, he knew music. And he was. So what do you think about people who now, Trick Daddy said it, Al D came on here and said it. They say that Chris Brown is better than Michael Jackson. And people, I'm just telling you what they're saying. And I know you guys, y'all got your mouth all twisted up. Like, but this is what people are saying now. So do you think Chris Brown is doper than Michael Jackson? No. No. Not even close. Why? Because he dances. He does flips. He does music. He's got a great voice. It's just like, you know, if you know anything about instrumentation, right? You know, so far as an actual instrument, like a violinist knows between a good violin and a sorry violin. Yeah. Because it's a sound that comes out of that violin. Correct. You just can't beat Michael Jackson's voice. That voice is ridiculous. Like, nobody can mess with that voice. To me, the impact that he's had, yes, a lot of people love Chris Brown, but even more, to me, love Michael Jackson. Not only the young, the old, you know, even the old, old Michael Jackson. You know what? I'm gonna tell you something. And then, hold on, I've not, okay, maybe I haven't seen it. Have Chris Brown ever touched somebody and they fainted? I don't know. I mean, I'm saying it's Chris Brown to be on this whole platform and spoken of in that way is a great compliment in itself. Yes. Yeah, but he's not, his music is not transcended like that. No. You know, it's not like, honestly, if you've never played me another Chris Brown song ever, I'd be good. But you can't roller skate without some rock with you. You can't. Okay, you gotta have it. All night. I mean, you can't even have all night. You can't even have Halloween without thriller. I mean, it's like, just do this, come on, man. I've always been doing it since day one. I get it. I get it. But he was like, five years old, he was doing James Brown for an interview. Yeah. That family is musically drenched. But then some would say because he done his face like that and because he went through and burned his hair up. But it doesn't take much. Let me finish. All I'm saying is the reason they say that because they're saying a lot of people that I've spoken to says that those were plots that influenced his his platform. These were staged events. What? The hair burnings, the face being... No, his hair was burnt. No, no, I'm just telling you, this is what some people think. You know, when you look at all the plots... His hair is sizzling. It's sizzling. But they're saying these things are things that they feel like, you know, helped his career and pushed his agenda. No, his career was started when he was a young boy. I don't know any black family that was not wearing out a Jackson 5 album. I had to beat a Jackson in the red one with the zippers. Yeah, I had it. There's no way. There's no way that you can... I mean, it's just... The thing is, is that you got a different vibration. You know what I mean? Okay. When you talk about old-school music, they really talked and really sold you love. They taught you love and music. Okay. If anything, you got out of it. Well, he was in love and you learned love in music back in the day. Nowadays, you learn about how to get with somebody. Kenyatta Sands. Boy, I tell you, man. I want to know from Kenyatta Sands, though. You call his whole name. With your brand, right? Your brand started back in 91. But then you had stopped doing your brand for a long time. Right. I got on him about that. And then you just started back not too long ago. Being a brand, a black brand... Ambassador. That started when all the black brands started. Right. Why did you stop? Part of it was personal. My wife wanted to go to get her doctorate, so she couldn't work. And I had to make sure all the payments were being done at the house and so on and so forth. So I had to kind of... You know, when you're a black-owned business and you did not sell your brand to a Jewish garmento. To a what? Jewish garmento. I get it. So at that time, when you were making this, your brand wasn't big enough to sustain the whole family, so to say. Well, you had to flip your money because I didn't walk out of a situation where I'm sitting on unlimited cash. You know what I mean? So in other words, I started a brand with 300 bucks. I didn't start it with 3 million. Right. So, you know, imagine trying to flip that and then I eventually had an investor, but he kind of put in money that he got from signage and whatever, so it wasn't a really big deal for him. But it was never enough money to keep flipping and keep flipping and keep flipping for you to be like, all right, that's not because you're trying to make your, you're trying to get to where your competition is. My competition is in the hundreds of millions. How am I going to get there with, you know, 200,000, whatever the case is? So I got to keep flipping and flipping it. So as an entrepreneur, you're not paying your rent because you're like, no, no, no, no. Real boss put his money up. We know that. That's a part of business. But can a small person like that starting from $300, somebody with a dream of a t-shirt or whatever, get to that place? Yeah. And how long will it take to get to that place? I have done it. No. Yes. Tell me what Damon John, how does Fubu turn into a... But he didn't start with $300. Is that what you're saying? No. He did not start with a t-shirt. He started small. No. Okay. So listen, Damon John, I believe they raised over $100,000 to get their first product made in the streets. But then they got signed by Samsung. And Samsung is the biggest, you know, one of the biggest companies in the world. Right. They already had stores in Japan. And Japan was on hip-hop big, real big, at that time. So the timing couldn't be more perfect for Damon John for them to do what they had to do. But they signed with some big players. So in order for you to get big, you have to sign with people... Big money. With a bank. With money and resources. Okay. So there was no way to Damon John know. They didn't get that big with just their, you know, with just their... So but you had such a great product. How comes you I just couldn't, I didn't want to move to New York. All the guys that were Jewish, their own companies were in New York, didn't want to move to New York. That was not that fun. Straight west side. The only west side company. And you got offers. I'm sure. No, I mean, not really, but I probably... But you could have a feeder shop to the round like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He wasn't even about to even go there. No. Right? Not at all. And I mean, the question becomes, do you want to, do you really want to, you want to keep owning what you have? The fact that you stay true to who you were. Yeah. You see what I'm saying? And that you still right now have creative control, you own the product and you still, you know, you basically, great guy. I love it, man. What about, did you feel, let me say this, did you feel like Carl Canine and all those guys were competitors? Absolutely. We all, we all wanted to be on the top. Okay. But those guys, their story is a little different. See, CrossColor has left a million dollar company. CrossColor has left a $20 million company. Carl Jones was ownership in this company called Surf Fetish. And Surf Fetish at that time was big because, like I said, the whole surf skate was huge. $20 million out of company. Yeah. Left them had money. This guy already had 19 Harleys living up in Beverly Hills and so on. I'm thinking he's like me. Yeah. So I'm thinking like, well, if you can make another kind of money we making, I'm on it. But they was like, trust me, that kind of money and that kind of knowledge, totally different ball game. Wow. You know, you're talking hundreds of dollars, hundreds of millions of dollars and you're like, dude, there's no way you can. The message is the car could not you and any of those guys on the West Coast, did y'all ever try to come together to do anything? No. I think everybody wanted to be the king. I think that's the way it goes. I think it worked to each other. I'm sure that car wanted to smash cross colors. Well, I brought Carl up to you here recently and when I did, I could still feel that competitive spirit in you. Yeah. I don't, you know, come on, man. You love your clothes, though. You know what I'm saying? I'm proud, man. Cork and I is so far away. He dope, though. He dope, man. What I'm saying is what I met him do, man. He way up there with it, man. But you came out at the same time. Yeah, you did, but because he stopped and he didn't sign with a big person and stuff like that. Because Carl and I, Carl and I was a small guy and signed with cross colors. And that's what blew him up. And that's what made him big. Right. So he had the backing of cross colors, but then when the whole bank was, because at that time Skechers was doing the shoes. But cross colors went to funk because one of the biggest company they had was Marigoround. Someone Marigoround went bankrupt. That killed everything for cross colors. One last question I have for you. You started back the brand right now. Where what's your vision for your brand? So I started the brand last year again. I mean, obviously we would What inspired you to start it back anyway? You know, for me, there was a lot of things I wanted to learn. So my journey went from owning that, but there's like stores that I've never, there's stores I had to go see for myself and learn, but then there's thousands of stores I did not know. And trust me, there's a story that you would not know unless you are a sales rep. So it was dope that you went to the brand. So what's your vision for your company? So my vision for the company is to be that voice for the positive straight up. There's a lot of a lot of times negative imagery. This is what you get. I have, I live in my community. I'm not going to promote guns on my clothing because I live in my community. I don't want dangerous children around me. I mean, come on, that's not smart. That's not conducive to having a safe environment. I'm not going to tell your child that he needs to have an AK-47. Why would I do that? Let me ask one more question before we get off here. When Nipsey Hussle died in you guys as a community, how do you feel that affected everything? Or do you think it even had an effect on anything? Oh, it definitely had an effect. I mean, I think that, you got to imagine he was probably one of the biggest figures. In fact, he wasn't all that big until he died. It was exactly. Exactly. That's how this industry is. It's crazy. It's like you blow up once you pass away. But the funny thing is, I knew of Nipsey Hussle. I've seen his crowds when he did there was an event I went to and it was like, and man, I mean, the whole crowd went banana. So I had a lot of respect for him, but I wasn't really familiar with his music. And then I started seeing him all over the place. And I was like, you know, he's actually a very good fashionable looking kind of guy. Like he looks dope. Like if he walks in the room, you're like, who's that? Yeah. Yeah. His style. Yeah. I've been in the room with him. So I definitely got that. One more thing. What? Hold on. Since you started back, are you looking for that bank to come on board with your brand now to elevate it? Well, actually, the fortunate thing is I have the bank. Oh. Oh. So it's kind of like, at this point, it's like, it's just a matter of building it the right way. And you are the sole owner? Yes. That's dope. I like that. And I definitely, I'm sporting positive wear. I'm selling positive wear. Yeah. Yeah. I already made the decision. But you don't do it until you came on my show. To make it really clear to everybody, understand that the positive people, there are great people doing great things every single day. But we know more about Kodak Black than all the other great people that are doing big things out there. All the positive people that don't do no harm to nobody, the religious people, the people that go out there every day, work every day to make their family right. You know what I mean? There's people that need something to say that about themselves. So let me tell you what we've said on this show many, many times over, because yes, we do interview a lot of entertainers, and I tell them all the time, you have something very powerful, which is this mic. Right. That can reach so many people through your music. And I've always begged and I've always said, please put something positive in there. You know what I mean? Because you're touching not only children, you're touching adults. Music can turn your day from a bad day to a good day. Anytime we're feeling down what we do, whether gospel, rap, whatever, and you get into your feelings, you change your mood. I've heard DJs on here saying there could be working in the clubs, you know, doing their thing and a fight breakout. And just because of the type of music they change, it changes the atmosphere. The fight stops and everybody goes back to normal. People don't realize how powerful, and I didn't realize how powerful this mic and how powerful music is until I started interviewing. Wow. Well, I mean, another second, but just to piggyback on what you're saying, that is real, okay? Because music has been part of every culture forever. Mm-hmm. You know, it's the kind of stuff that you use to communicate. You know, when you have like, I'm black and I'm proud, trust me how that may people feel. I could get chills just saying that. Exactly. You know what I'm saying? But you feel black power, I'm going to do my thing. They know that the programmers know to program you to be, so the thing is you just got to understand this. It really boils down to this. This country is predicated on money. True. People came here to make money. They don't stole people from Africa to make more money. They could have hired their own folks to pick some cotton. They were like, no, I want free labor. Right? Exactly. Okay. They ain't personal as money. Mm-hmm. You know, all that chaos that we're dealing with is because it makes money. You know, all the good units and all that don't make money. I get it. It's the chaos. So all the bad units and all the money you get back are made. What do you always think about them? You expect yourself to have a political participatory channel that's going to get Done and that's that's that's that's the stewards with market value. Rather a profit in you that I grew up having fun you know all the stuff that y'all doing I don't I don't get it like me personally dancing was fun to me going to a club was fun to me going to Greek Fest there's no festivals no more there's no they're on their phone doing video games all day and that's fun to them man when I was 17 years old I couldn't wait to go to college why because they had home Cummins they had you had like when I went to Morehouse I'm on God yet the Morehouse homecoming you had we was writing it we was clocking out of New Spelman we had Morris Brown we had ITC all this in one area then you have Freednicks then you had home Cummins you had this on man listen growing up was young fun that's what you need to think about you know think about Will Smith's summertime song just think about that for a second you know I mean that's real that's real homegrown our communities even though sometimes we had our whatever but if you go to any old-school community always tell you always have fun have fun enjoy yourself Kenyatta thank you so much for coming on the show man we love you brother yes I love y'all too and definitely I see you in Vegas in about what eight or nine days we gotta go to our party party yeah I'm being the first or second day well it's gonna be gonna be there oh it's gonna be on Wednesday gonna be on Wednesday it's yeah it's tip coming we're gonna be there are we gonna have that we're gonna change the plan it's just show I'm gonna keep asking miss tip coming it's tip coming I don't think so dang man it don't matter I don't seem too many but this would be the first time y'all done a party on Wednesday it's always the yeah but this is the second this is the first time COVID hit and and the show the whole Vegas thing in 50 years so hey man this is a big deal say man thank you so much man we love you bro hey man it's been another great segment of boss talk 101 boss talk