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Kanye's whole thing is I don't give a [ __ ] art is something that you would really fight for if you love it even if your message is misunderstood like white lives matter he's an artist that likes War one of the founders of Rockefeller Rockaway he discovered Jay-Z Kanye West and so many others one of the biggest Pioneers in hip-hop I took Jay-Z and shocked him to every single label and they all said no I had to do it myself I really want to understand why Rockefeller won I did Partnerships with my artists I'm gonna give you all the rights to my record my art and then you're gonna give me 10 of my art that just didn't make sense to me that host end of your career the Rockefeller chapter do you have any regrets surrounding that one I wouldn't I wouldn't have been so generous with Jay it was more friendship for me and money for him but he did things that I thought he would never do what are those I'm just saying this let me just say this it's the hardest moment in your life well I'll hear that that breaks my heart singer actress Aaliyah is killed in a plane crash I tried to play out what that would feel like don't do it you don't want you don't want to go there it's a it's a pain that you don't couldn't understand [Music] foreign [Music] I just want to say a huge thank you to all of our new subscribers 74 of you that watch this channel didn't subscribe before and we're now down to about 71 so that helps us in a number of ways that are quite hard to explain but simply the bigger the channel gets the bigger the guests get so if you haven't yet subscribed to the Diary of a CEO if I can have any favors from you if you've ever watched this show and enjoyed it it's just to please hit the Subscribe button without further Ado I'm Stephen Butler and this is the Diary of a CEO I hope nobody's listening but if you are then please keep this yourself [Music] foreign [Music] I always believe that in order to understand a man you have to understand
their earliest context because as childhood psychology often asserts that's really when um our character and our our shape is formed so can you take me back to your earliest context the context that's most relevant to who you went on to become in your life back in Harlem um on 109th and First Street my first like real memory of who I am is I remember being like four and I was in Nursery School and the teacher yelled at me or I got in trouble and I felt embarrassed I felt uncomfortable and I remember saying to myself at as a four-year-old I'm never going to feel embarrassed again ever I didn't like the way it felt you know like when Fred Flintstone used to get yelled at and he started shrinking and I just was like I'm never going to put myself in a position to let any adult teacher whatever I'm never going to be embarrassed I just hated that I remember not liking that feeling and I think that was the last time I felt it pause and how did that so that presumably impacts your relationship with authority figures it just means I don't care what anybody thinks so no matter what regardless to what you're not going to make me feel as less of who I am I know who I am so there was no way that teacher was going to make me feel small just because they were a teacher and I was a student there was no way that they were going to make me feel less of myself I was never going to let another person make me feel bad about myself ever again the last time that happened I was four years old but what I saw was as I got older that this is the way people live their life fear what people think of them and that's the reason why they don't say what they feel that's the reason why they internalize and that's the reason why they end up depressed so as long as you're expressing yourself as long as you don't care as long as you're not hurting anybody there's no pain to feel it's almost like at that point I sprayed this thing called I don't give a [ __ ] what anybody's thinking spray and I think that's been the most important thing is not to care about the Judgment of other
people what about your parents could they tell you what to do well my of course as a child but my mom died when I was 16 so I was still a child so at that point I was making money you know the last time anyone could tell me what to do would be the last time someone was paying my bills so if you paying my bills then you could tell me what to do and I've never put myself in a situation like that as an adult for someone to be able to tell me what to do they could give me advice my parents could give me advice but you know at 16 or 17 after my mom died I was getting more money than my dad you know so at that point it's hard to listen to people that are older than you that hasn't that haven't got to the place you want to go and as a child you become very arrogant when you can do adult things but my mother was the one that taught me to never ever let someone tell you something that you don't believe without saying how you feel about it and you know almost where made it to where we might have had almost a somewhat disrespectful relationship because I would talk back but you know in school I would talk back if I didn't agree with you I was letting you know and I'd be like my mother taught me that you know what I mean so I was basically taught to talk back you're a father now when you when you look back yeah yeah I should be a grandfather I just you know I just my last my newest child uh uh you know I met I had it 150. I'm 51. five kids yeah last time I counted when you look back on um your own relationship with your parents and how now that you're you know you're a father you've got kids of your own how in hindsight did that shape you the relation to the dynamic between your parents but also their relationship with you is there anything you look back and say well because of that I became this oh everything I have a tattoo on my arm that says thanks for making me the man I am so yeah I got my sense of humor from my father and I got my hustle from my
mother period and yeah you become a combination of the people that influence you the most that's why you have to be important I mean it's important that you're cognizant of what you do when you realize that people are actually influenced by you you know what I mean you never want to do something that you don't want the people you love to do because they're going to do exactly what you do so I got a little bit of that you know my mom she was like you know an entrepreneur she always made sure I had everything she sold things you know I mean not drugs but like you know like uh clothes you know what I mean but like at flea markets and stuff and she was real Innovative about it she did this thing once he went to a flea market and she took a hula hoop and put a curtain on it and we would stand up and it made into a dressing room and that day she sold all of her jeans she made 800 that day I remember at aqueduct so you know I've always had that hustle and bustle for my moms and and and and doing things different at an early age made me know that that's the only way you could do it right like standing in like if you don't stand out then you're just atmosphere in a crowd but when you do things different than people are drawn to one of the things I've thought about since growing up is how a lot of the things that I value most as characteristics of myself probably came from what the world would consider to be mistakes that my parents made so one of them being like not being around me makes you independent or you know maybe being a workaholic maybe makes the kid a workaholic or maybe not having money gives you drive when you think about the things that wouldn't be in that like parenting Handbook of how to raise a child that ultimately served you and made you you know the man you are today is there anything there where you go a mistake made me brilliant yeah every mistake that I had to fix made me bring it make sure boss because that's a boss's job is to like untie knots um you know your job as a parent
is to make sure your children never have to go through the same problems that you went through is to break Cycles But first you kind of have to understand what that cycle is so as an adult that had children I was you know I ain't gonna like [ __ ] on my dad but if I were him I would have been in my life a little more and you can look at a like you know there's this thing like you know if your father's an alcoholic you could either become an alcoholic because of it or just never touch drinks it depends on how things affect you so you know the way he parented and the way I knew and I was conscious about the way it made me feel I knew what not to do to my children or what not to you know be absent or how when I should be consistent you know the cycle that I've wanted to break was that cycle where you know your mother tells you not to like your father and your father's telling you certain things about your mother and those are the people that you love the most and only thing you want as a child is for your parents to get together that's all you want so you know it took me to have five kids to have a a good um relationship a good um you know one that's not so traumatizing for the child a functional relationship it took me five to to be fifty to get there but each one of those children the other four children I knew that I was like damn I I you know even though I've been able to make it where they've never had to sell drugs and they've had the best educations and lived that one percent of life but I I wasn't able to break that cycle the thing that hurt me the most was the separation of my parents and the beef I wasn't able to break that cycle so you know I I wasn't gonna stop till I did it was almost like with every child I became a better parent but knowing that the breakup of my mother and father affected my mother for the rest of her life which affected me you know what I'm saying and I didn't want to ever do that to my to my um to my children and then also being a visiting dad is whack you want to wake up with your child you want to watch your child grow and evolve
you know buying and and providing physical things a kid doesn't even care about that that's not currency to a kid they don't even know about money until you tell them about it all they care about is your time and that's the most valuable thing is you know the love that you can give your child so you know at some point you might think okay I'll sacrifice time with my child because I got to make money to support them but the kid don't care about that you know the kid just wants you to be there to support him did you learn did you learn about emotions and affection and how to express yourself from from your parents was that was that something that you were able to do as a young man well yeah I mean I wouldn't put a title on it like oh this is affection but I've always been able to express myself in any way you know whether I'm crying or whether I'm cuddling you know I don't have any uh problems about being and showing what I feel in that moment unless it's the police you you'll you're 16 16 years old when your mother passes away um yeah how does how does that change you from everything I've read about that time in your life she was she was everything and I read that you'd said that that was your biggest fear when you were a young man was losing your mother yeah yeah it made me a beast it made me feel this you know it's like a gift in the curse of facing your nightmares early because then you have nothing else to be scared of so you know my mom's died again I didn't really care if I die because I'd be like oh should I I'd be with my moms so I didn't I had no fear of anything at that point and I knew how I would react you know because sometimes you you don't know how you're going to react in certain situations so I knew how how I could get over it not get over it but live with it and also it makes you appreciate what a real problem is you know like
you know like after my mom's died I was like yo nobody's dying I don't even want to hear about it it could be fixed I'm not gonna ever be unhappy unless it has something to do with Health death or freedom you know what I'm saying but other than that nothing's gonna ever make me worry like I'm not going to be like a lot of people overreact to problems because they never had any they don't know what a problem is and they make something that's like feel like it's the worst thing in the world and I'm not gonna ever do that because I appreciate when things are good you know I'm saying it'd be like just in any second some [ __ ] could happen that's [ __ ] up so in between those moments that you can't control you have to enjoy life to the fullest 100 but sometimes you have to actually go through some pain early so you understand how to appreciate life moving forward same thing of me losing my girl losing Aaliyah you know it wasn't a pain I thought that I would ever feel of you know you don't anticipate like losing your girl but once you do you once you get a girl again you don't let go and you appreciate love you know [ __ ] has to be taken from you things things that are free you find are Priceless when they get taken from like freedom and people you love you know and then you're like what was I complaining about you know I was rich I was wealthy because I had love and now I don't and there's no money in the world I could bring it back you know once your health is gone it don't matter you will spend any amount of money to get your health back if you're sitting in the bed compromised once your freedom is taken you'll spend any amount of money to get out of jail all of it because you can't spend none of it while you're in jail other than on commissary which is and then again lose a friend lose someone you love you'll do you if you could do any you'd spend anything in the world to get that person back but then you have to actually lose them to realize how much and how how lucky you were to have them so I try to appreciate life in the moment I do appreciate life in the moment
because I'll be like what if this was taken from me then I'd be sick you know 16 years old losing your mum in that context in Harlem how do you how do you how do you grieve that nobody teaches you how to grieve you sell drugs sell drugs yeah that's how I grieved that was like yo I'm gonna go get money you know what I'm saying and you know at at that point in that moment I thought because I was younger that money meant happiness so I would do anything for it in that moment you know I mean like you know I was selling drugs I was risking my freedom and my life and hurting other people so that's how I did it you know just occupying my time and moving forward period it's not it's not grieving or is that a distraction I don't know what you call it at that age it's called and getting through it so yeah it's probably a distraction you know but again like what did you want to do at 16. to me you know I didn't have the money for a therapist or the hindsight to go get one in that moment so I just sold drugs is that what you think in hindsight you needed if I didn't mean anything I like where I'm at now I think every lesson that I've learned to get me to this place has been perfect for me and for the world the world learns as I learn that's the guy that I've become I don't call them losses I call them learning experiences but when you do that publicly and you could always land or you always land back on your feet the rest of the world learns from that Tim Grover who um trained MJ and Kobe said to me that you know you're looking to people's early years and you'll find you'll find trauma and things that have happened in pain and it will be the often be responsible for their as he called it their Light Side the thing that makes them great and famous and resilient and successful and win the gold medals but then that that thing is also responsible for their dark side which can be the you know it can be the insecurities it can be the the things that are less um admired do you agree with that and if so um what is your dark side
well you know I think it's natural to be worried when things are going good for a second because it's happened where things are going good and I've been devastated but in that moment I say it's normal for you to think like that you've been through it I think the only dark side is people triggering me that you know when I feel someone's not doing right by me or by people that I love I I can get triggered pretty I get triggered it's hard to control that side why why can you get easily triggered I probably because I've there's been things that have been bothering me for a while you know when you're in the street you have to make examples of people so any kind of weakness means that more people are it makes you like a magnet for paint like people trying to rob you or think you saw for whatever especially when you run a crew you know so you always have to be the strongest you have to be willing to do anything that you're sending someone else to do you know what I'm saying so in the street you know it's it's swing now think about it later it's survival mode and what happens is just because you're out of survival mode your muscles and your Natural Instincts still do survival mode at times so I've had to get therapy to you know be like yo you're not in the street to be able to say that like yo you're not in the street so you don't have to deal with things that way anymore but if you've seen in my career you know it'd be a lot of yelling because I would rather put like when I'm really yelling it would be me like in the street out of put my hands on you so instead of me yelling I mean instead of me putting my hands on you and going to jail I would just yell or snap so I had to actually because it's a different game in the street than it is in business and the rules are different like you know being disrespectful is almost part of like traditional corporate business the [ __ ] that you do every day in corporate business we could get you put in a trunk in the street
and if you come from the street and you have to be like oh that hurt like I would have really I can't hurt you I can't hit you I can't do nothing I can't defend myself I got to go through a lawyer for this it could become traumatized and you got to internalize a lot so disrespect triggers me and you know people trying to control a narrative by tricking you into thinking you're not great when you really are you know I mean people have tried to convince me I'm not a superhero and I know I am I'm Batman why is that an important belief for you because I'm always fighting for the culture that's what a superhero does you know or general like you know back in the Roman days no matter how much money you had you were not famous unless you fought for your country and won a war for your country for something you love you know and for me I'm a person that loves a lot not just country I Love Culture I love a lot I love art there's so much for me to fight for you know what I'm saying it's like I just can't look the other way for things that affect me and my culture and things that people I love it's hard I think a lot of conditioning happens when you see things are wrong and you got to look the other way for survival and I've just never been that guy and I don't come from a family or a bloodline of people that have ever been abused that have ever been bullied I come from a bloodline of people that bully the bully that oppressed the oppressor like we look for people that think they're tough because we really think they are not just based on the overcompensation you know what I mean so it's not in how you like project project yourself or act it's really about what you do if I lost you when you were 16 17 after your mother passes what you're going to be when you're older I just said great I'm gonna be great I'm gonna be Dame Dash I didn't know what I was gonna be at 16 I just knew I was going to be great how could you be so sure how could you not be so sure I'm Dame Dash you know what I'm saying like my
narrative's never been losing you know when you start out winning and that's all you know even when it appears you lose if you're a winner you're like I could I just can't see myself losing so no matter what it's gonna I'm gonna end up winning I'll learn from it it'll be be patient but I just don't see I don't see losing you realize that not everybody has that mindset right just too bad for them I don't understand why do you understand where you got that mindset from I'm from Harlem it's just a harlem thing I think my family you know and just winning like you know being that kid in school that was like good at all the sports Becca fight could dance funny you know what I mean I just don't see myself taking a hell that belief has not built built over time like got stronger and reinforced by success over over and over again like building like this building of evidence about what you're capable of and who you are has it developed or was it just always solid I just never thought I wasn't gonna win like I I don't know I mean like for someone to ask me and say like that's crazy that you always think you're gonna win I really think that's crazy that you don't think you're always gonna win like the way I see the opposite I just don't understand why I get into a fight that you think you're gonna lose and life is a fight every day so why would I get into anything thinking I'm not going to make history I'm like a little behind schedule for me right now what do you mean by that well again in the beginning of my career everything I did was for money I was all about the money and then this thing happened where it just became all about the art and being able to sustain doing what I want being happy and being able to create becoming a starving artist and just being someone that not exploits artists but actually is the artist I was doing it the business way and I was getting where I needed to go as far as touching pop culture but the people around me were making it where I wasn't happy
about it didn't feel good and I decided to do it the artist's way so back then I didn't know I would be like [ __ ] I just want to be an artist I thought if I was just doing things for money like imagine would I be in the music business right now if I just was like exploiting everyone that's not smart you know and taking advantage like if I took advantage of Jay-Z which I probably could he didn't know anything about the business he might try to act like that now but I trust you know what I'm saying so you know if I was that person that would do anything no Integrity no morals or Scruples I'd have billions and billions and billions of dollars I wouldn't have taught my artists how to leverage their celebrity for their own products I would just leverage their celebrity for my own you're gonna say I don't I like I teach my artists how to be independent of me you understand what I'm saying that's why the artist around me end up like usually it's the businessman that has more money than artists right the artists are the ones that have more money than the business man obviously I'm not the businessman you know what I'm saying I once I have the bread I'm the artist it's funny how artists become businessmen they kick the heart at certain points or who's really an artist or what a real artist is but to me a real artist is someone that won't do nothing for money which is me I won't do nothing for money I make money off the things that I love to do of the art and I respect the process of Art you feel me that's why you see when I came in I I know it's I know the process but not of one art of a lot so I know the fashion art the music art the comic you know even though I don't draw but you know all of these different things I tried I learned them from to where I could do it independently and I don't have to Outsource at the cost of the timeline which could have been you're saying could have been faster if you if you chosen to exploit people right and that's a trade-off that a lot of people
wouldn't have taken they would have taken yeah that's funny measurable yeah they're on pills now they're not happy now they're paying for sex it's just I won't do it for the first part of your career you were you were on the other side right you were the businessman you were you were working with artists like Jay-Z and Kanye and many many others um and you weren't in sort of artist mode as you kind of see yourself now with the comic books and the movies and the music and everything else you're doing everything you're doing children's books the the list was so long that I I thought just it's almost it's like I said it's Insanity it's ridiculousness the amount of things that inspire me that I think I could actually do better than everyone else when you look back though on that and that period from you know from being that 16 year old you go through school I heard you got kicked out of school a lot okay I got kicked out of one school and then I dropped out of the next but um you got kicked out a lot of schools I can understand why from what you said about that four-year-old kid that why would I want somebody that doesn't have as much money as I want to make trying to tell me what to do and how you think they felt when I would tell them that like my car is better than yours I'm 16. you're the principal you know what I'm saying then you park in the principal spot one time as well that's what got me kicked out of two schools it's so crazy because you know there would be kids at the real wild stuff in school that did not get kicked out but question this entitlement of certain kinds of people just because someone gives them Authority doesn't mean I'm acknowledging it that Journey that led you from there from being kicked out of that school to you know signing Jay-Z building that career and all of that success around Jay-Z and Kenny what was when you look back at why you why you versus everyone else what did you have to to spot Jay-Z's talent to spot Kanye's talent to build them into stars to create Rockefeller alongside them what was it about you in hindsight the
characteristics of you as a person that made you capable of doing such an endeavor I mean I just wasn't taking no like if I believe someone's gonna win I'm 100 sure that they will and then I fight and make sure that they do did you have history and music before Jay's I mean you've done you 've been together music business yeah I got to be I was in the music since I was 19. so I went from drug dealing to the music business do you need any qualifications to join to become part of the music business no you could be the dumbest [ __ ] in the world that's why so many people that really you see I mean in the music business the traditional music business they are figureheads that like if you ask the average president of a you know label about p l and quarterly you know they won't know [ __ ] about that they're just there because a white company or another culture can't say that they're running black people with a white face so you need a figurehead there someone that will listen to what that person is telling them what to do and that's why that industry was no bueno for me I'm like first of all I never got hired in that industry I came as a partner but the funny thing is they couldn't recognize me as a partner because they were not and I couldn't recognize them as generals they'd be like yo how are you going to talk to you're a soldier how could you talk to a general like that without thinking your teeth are going to get cracked you understand what I'm saying and they didn't understand that like you don't understand I own this [ __ ] you work for somebody talk to me like the boss and it's crazy how you will talk to the people that don't own [ __ ] like the boss they just couldn't understand what that meant to own my actual Equity the own have ownership not had sell my rights to something and then let somebody else pay me for my work that does not logically make sense and it never did to me you know what that means like you have a grown ass man saying and being proud to say I'm signed does that actually sound right I'm signed to another man no it doesn't but they've actually
programmed us to believe it is you're going to give me an advance I'm gonna give you all the rights to my record my everything that I've done my art and then you're going to give me 10 of my art that's what the music business is or eight percent if you're lucky that just didn't make sense to me and I never did I did Partnerships with my artist with the artists I work with in the businesses that I do now just because I want people to maintain their manhood like I don't ever say you signed to me I'm I'm not letting I don't like the way that sounds so you know even the verbiage in the the whole thing just your masters you know what I'm saying all of those things are like trigger words you know they're unconsciously control us can we smoke here if you want it yes is this I don't know is that a fire alarm didn't know you're not even from here man I have no idea don't even get out of here that's just you just you just we're not in the hotel okay is it is it gonna go off because you think we'll go up I have no idea what that is it should be fine it is what it is it is what it is you know I'm trying to I really want to understand why Rockefeller won and you know it's because it was real because it was real it was real and I wasn't having it Rocco they weren't no one wanted to sign think about how this is the record industry I took Jay-Z and shocked him to every single label and they all said no I had to do it myself where did they send her either he was too old he raped too fast they just didn't have it so we were like we'll do it ourselves so that's the thing remember when I said before people been telling me I'm not a superhero and I know I am right so if someone told you that you couldn't sell companies and do the things that you did because to them it's superhero [ __ ] it's a dream that they can't come true for them you feel me like you've done things that people want to do and I guarantee you if you came with that idea that certain people they'd say give you 30 reasons why you can't do it
the reason why Rockefeller was good the reason why I did what I had to do was because I knew how to have a clear dream without anyone obstructing it I knew how to visualize winning so if somebody told me you can't do that because of this get out my dream because that's not the last thought I'm gonna have with my dream because my mind is powerful and whatever I see in my mind I can make happen so what I'm living in is my dream I dreamed about coming to London right now in the past this was a visualization I didn't know exactly what I'd be doing in London but I visualized doing a lot of [ __ ] talking to a lot of people you understand what I'm saying so if you can't visualize winning then you will not win and the average person because we're programmed not to win 99 of us are we don't think anyone can so when someone does it's amazing but it's just a program as soon as you're born you know I've said this before you don't know about fear what to be scared of until someone tells you what to be scared of and a lot of what people tell you to be scared of is to actually be successful and dream and be independent and be on your own you know what would you like if you were a conniving person that wanted to take over the whole world and you had that kind of power but that you had to program everybody the first thing I would do is take everybody's kids as soon as they wake up and program them for eight hours a day on what I want them to do I want you to go to college I want you to get a job I want you to work until you're 70. I want you to be unhappy I want you to have a a debt I want you to go get a loan to go to college and then I want you to work that off and if you don't if you don't go to college then you make it you you make your parents dreams into a nightmare most kids only go to college for their parents you understand what I'm saying then you pay for that so when I look at hieroglyphics I never see school I think parents love their children the most no one's going to love their kids more than the people that
made them those should be the people teaching them why would you put a kid in a in a in a room behind a desk when the sun is out for their whole entire childhood not put them in front of water or Ocean or anything that inspires them dim lights if you notice schools jails and hospitals all look exactly the same why wouldn't it be in something inspiring why because it's a program to keep us controlled you have to when you have to have order of masses you have to have them all doing the same thing so you can know what they're doing you can monetize what they're doing you know how they're doing it so at a very early age I was like yo all this [ __ ] y'all teaching me first of all none of it makes me think I'm number one it would make me if I believe that y'all are teaching me especially back then that I'm number two that I could never be a boss that there could never be a black president they never teach us how to pass laws and and Lobby or be politicians and that's the only way to make change so it has to be strategic so when the cycle continues over and over again without change it's either insanity or it's intentional somebody's losing which is us but somebody's winning which is them and they're controlling the game so now we have to make our own game which behooves US but the patterns that are implemented like you said the DNA of who you are starts when you're a child what happens as soon as you're four or five years old until you get taught what to read how to read what to do and you're also told that the only way you could break a social class is to be an athlete or be an entertainment and both are provided for you in school so you just cash out and don't go to school get an education you go and invest all your dreams in being an athlete which is like lotto and when it doesn't happen they build a jail based on those that don't graduate that's how they build jail cells which is a independent sector with me you know meaning that you know
it's out you know it's not the government doesn't own it and the intention is to keep those beds and those jails filled because you have a government contract it's nothing but a hotel that you want to keep so when you get to that jail based on the fact that you didn't get your education they make sure that you come back no Rehabilitation at all and serve you bad food no therapy none of that [ __ ] and it's obvious if you study people which people do that you should do that different so that there would be a different result but because there hasn't been any change made by anyone the change has to come from us and that's the reason why Rockefeller was successful because I wasn't with none of that not the education not the programming that we should be signed none of that [ __ ] not them telling me Jay was too old all of that you understand what I'm saying so basically everything I've been told has not behooved me but everything I do has so when I don't listen my family eats when I do we don't one of the things they don't teach us when we're we're young is about is about money especially if you don't come from it and you haven't got a and that's a business holding money is a business within itself they don't teach you how to pay taxes yeah they don't teach you about um capital gains yeah they don't teach you about trust funds none of that [ __ ] they don't teach you how to have money because they don't expect you to get none why isn't there a class on how to have money how to invest it how to pay your taxes yeah I mean I destroyed by 18 years old we have this thing called a credit score out here I think you have the same sort of thing in the US I destroyed mine very early and then I got these two ccjs which is a county court judgment which sits on your credit score for six years when I was 18 because I was shoplifting pizzas I was my parents weren't speaking to me I was trying to start these businesses how do you shoplift the pizza you just walk in you get back just as
smart as you can so they don't you're still black so they're still going to look at you walking in the shop but you're just as smart as you can go around the back put it in the bag walk out that's what I was doing I just didn't have any money but um but I I didn't I destroyed my financial his my financial credit before I knew what it was but it didn't bother you because you still did what you had to do I was convinced I was going to make a million Millions anyway so in the street there is no credit there's no contracts your word is your contract your honor is and if you come from that like that's the way I was introduced to life was the honor not the contract not the paper but the heart and the soul you know and that's another reason why I was like yo I can't be a businessman because it means my honor game is out the window how did you learn those lessons of business you start Rockefeller but you haven't gone to business school selling drugs huh you got to Market you got to be consistent you know you got to call it top no one else can use that color you protect it you brand your work got to be good marketing man well that's it wasn't see that's the thing about hustling this is another thing it's like because it's illegal you can't do no ads you just got to put out you got to give samples out and once the work once they addicted then you raise the prices for the marketing of Rockefeller that was something it was just the brand we were just active bro you know like innately I don't know I look back at tapes that I have of like you know when I was like 19 like and I had merch but I didn't call it merch back the things I was doing I didn't get taught I didn't have a title for them but it was just logical to do you know if you deal with logic as opposed to waiting for somebody to tell you I mean that's the difference between being a soldier and a general soldiers get they wait literally to be told what to do generals give orders there as well the naivety seems to be playing into your favor because if you'd gone to business school and learned about how to build a
a record like while I was in business school I'd have been missing building bro I paid for my daughter's college right but I told her you don't have to go to college she wanted to be a model at the time those four years it would have been the prime years far you understand what I'm saying now she graduated and it's like I I would have preferred because her Education costs a quarter of a million dollars I would have way preferred to just give her a quarter million dollars as a salary or at least invest a quarter million dollars in the business fund you know I tell my son lucky he's in college right now and I'm telling him I'm like I just did this with your sister if I'm paying for college you're going to listen to your professor but you're gonna have to listen to me too I have to be able to now this is my first lesson tell me what your dreams are what's your dream and it's the hardest question for him to answer they don't teach dreaming in school which is why we make books that aren't going to be mad about it I'm part of something called the OSG and there's also and it's a 200 principles and most of these principles are from places where um most people are economically challenged and what we do is we discuss curriculum the things of board of education's not doing we'll do it they do that on Thursdays and on Tuesdays I teach the principles and entrepreneurial class because none of the principals knew how to dream I'm like how y'all teaching your teachers to teach the kids how to dream if y'all don't so in order to teach these kids how to be Fearless y'all got to be fearless and they have and they've been there so I'm not just the person that talks about problems I'm actively trying to fix them I read that point about dreaming I've heard you talk about visualization and dreaming and the importance that plays and I've also saw you on a on an interview before you asked I think it was the host the guy that said he wanted to be an actor you are yeah yeah you remember I thought that was brilliant I watched it last
night and he's you know what's the right type of dream to set the one that you love what inspires you but don't dream cheap because they don't cost a dollar you gotta dream big why would you dream small pause you know what I mean like why wouldn't you have the perfect best case scenario and it has to be a selfish dream because you can't help nobody unless you can help yourself period unless you're 100 you can't help someone else be 100 have you always had a really crazy dream in your head yeah I've been living it Rockefeller was a crazy dream in my head but so was dd172 you know what I'm saying these other Art Gallery everything I'm doing right now being a director you know what I do is like as a creative person I like look at my life like a movie and I like to play different characters so I got to play the gangster character early got that out the way I got to be a a music mobile years ago a fashion designer fashion mobile you know I started oil I sold oil for fun you know just to do it you know web three metaverse the galleries you know with network you know that's where I got my land and network because of the utilities that it could do it could do a lot of [ __ ] just playing these different roles where does Focus come into this because this is none I'm insane I don't have any Focus that's the problem if there is a problem that is it I drive my staff and my crew crazy every day there's a new idea I'm inspired and I want to make it happen tangible or it bothers me and I have the wherewithal to make it happen I'm a starving artist but starving is relative for me you know imma always have a staff that can make my dreams come true so while I'm in London trust me the Third Edition of the magazine is being right as we speak and right now I can feel it actually being drawn and written you know what I came to learn probably the hard way about this point of focus is like I have all these dreams and things I want to do but they all come at the cost of the things I'm currently doing because it's 24 hours a day even my my team's time is finite so if you're well aware
that um focus is an issue for you and that you know you can't do everything how do you how have you not sort of stops range yourself in a little bit with all these ideas and projects you have going on because as I said I read the list and I was like Jesus sometimes I have to like completely detach so the last three months I just left la I've been trying to stay away from creative things I've been hiding my cameras from me you understand what I mean I'm staying away from people that inspire me I'm telling you you know I mean I'm in the house looking at a lake me and my girl and my baby for the last couple of years maybe I'd say nine to ten I've just been a creative and I've been creating and I haven't been outside I haven't been trying to promote or do any of those things but I have so many tangible physical assets Goods that need to be sold right now that it's time to be great so I've proven to myself that I can be an artist now I need to prove to myself I can make money off being an artist why does that matter so I could pay the bills so I can make more art to be able to have every single thing physically that everyone that sold out has is important to me so people could know they could do it on their own so if you see that Dane did it and I'm like a regular guy to me besides the superhero [ __ ] but if I could do it most people believe that they can as well so it's important to lead by example you know a lot of people give these like classes and they're standing third I'll be like yo just look at what I'm doing I'm not talking about like as I'm talking I'm like I don't make a living from talking I make a living from actually talking about the things I'm doing but the living comes from the things I'm doing you understand what I'm saying like I got [ __ ] I'm doing like I'm not just I got a movie to show you right now three I got a magazine to show you right now I got a comic book to show you right now I got a children's book to show you right now you know what I mean I got a whole fat I got so many different fashion lines you know you know I have an album out right now camera on me camera on the
a track it's called you wasn't there was number one on the rap charts last week I forgot I put that [ __ ] up when is enough enough work fine it's never enough fun if I'm not again it's not like I got a bunch of bread you know what I'm saying if I had crazy bread then they'd be like oh you I'm not doing it for the money I just do it every single day there's just new [ __ ] to do you said before we started recording you you're busy in your mind almost to the the point of insanity and when I spoke to rock who's your fiance fiance she said you're crazy crazy motivated the most driven motivated person she's ever encountered in her life he just never turns off he doesn't sleep I mean how sustainable is that how sustainable has it been you tell me you tell me I'm 51 52. I'm chilling almost to the point of insanity though he doesn't turn off he doesn't sleep I'm just having so much fun it's not like I'm like I don't leave her though it's not like I don't leave I I don't leave the house I'm up working so it's like oh [ __ ] it's music to make you know or oh [ __ ] there's a movie to make you know this is so much to do and I'm having mad fun so my dream like when I'm like literally like physically when I go to sleep and dream at night my life is better than anything I could be dreaming about and I get I'd be like like literally I wake up like I'm glad I am to stay in that like um is this am I still in my house like you know I mean like I I love if God listen for me not to take advantage of all the opportunity that God has given me based on where I'm from it would be disrespectful to the opportunities that are presented for me to sleep right now it'll be disrespectful it's too much like I I am very aware that I live a privileged life compared to most people because I can actually do things based on Art all day so it just would be disrespectful to art you know if you if I was coming up right so say I hadn't done anything in my life and I was young kid 18 years old and I'm saying dang I've got all these ideas you know I've got this book comic books the TV the movie did a what advice would you give me in terms of I'd say Focus interesting but the
thing about it is the difference is when I say I have all these ideas I'm also showing you tangible things can you execute people have ideas all day not many people can execute I can see that's where there's a gift in the curse because I can finish because I actually can do it because I will do it you understand what I'm saying yes isn't it yeah but I love it the reason I'm really obsessing about this topic is I've I've been talking to my team some of them seems like it must be a similar relatable problem and that's exactly why I'm really picking at it because you know I don't worry about it we're told that we can't move in 10 different dimensions at one time but we really can't but what about 20 you could do 50. but then it comes at the cost of one of those and that's what I've been contending because life doesn't come with a cost so I'll give you an example this podcast here we could start multiple podcasts with loads of different creators should do it but even five percent of my time thinking about that problem was taken from like my company let me show you let me equate that too so there are people that can cook very well for their family but a real Chef has to cook a thousand plates every [ __ ] night he does not do that on his own he has other chefs that he teaches so that's part of being a business person like look at Walt Disney like look at Disney they do a bunch of [ __ ] to insanity but it gets done so that's where the business comes see I'm lucky enough that I can understand my left and right side of the brain but I kind of understand if you do two things both of them working at the same time doesn't work out because in when you're dealing with money you can't be emotional but when you're dealing with art it's pure emotion so when I'm shooting movies and people try to make me do business I'd be mad like get the [ __ ] don't you it's not going to come from a businessman's plate it's going to come
from an emotional place so you know identifying when to turn off turn on It's Tricky have you ever over extended yourself in terms of taking on too much and don't [ __ ] I need to always hmm like you gotta remember like I don't have no support it's all me financially so all these things that got made got made from one pocket you know what I'm saying an independent pocket so it ain't there's never no money to look at like I'm always racing a storm when things happen to me in life it's like what's the message here right so we get we had this crib in Florida first two weeks lightning hit the crib blew out the [ __ ] air conditioners and you can't be in Florida without air conditioners in the summer and then this hurricane comes through so the hurricane is on his way I gotta go to the black caucus in Washington I have a commission meeting and do a panel for the congressman Andre Carson an account in the commission and I'm like yo I'm not going to be able to fly out of any Florida so we go to Hilton Head we got a crib in Hilton Head and Rocky's parents are from Hilton Head so we go to Hilton Head six hours away the storm comes to Hilton Head I got to go to Washington so while the storm is coming to is getting ready to go in the direction I gotta time it because we can't fly so luckily I'm you know because I'm able to move around I got a sprinter gotta driver I'm like yo I'ma drive there it's only eight hours away but the hurricanes come through it might catch you how many hours I got three all right let's go we yeah the wind is catching us we got to get you know what I mean but that's what my life is like I felt no fear which was crazy you know what I'm saying it was like fun and what was crazy about it wasn't a paid gig now if it was a paid gig I wouldn't have went but because I made a commitment because the commission is important to me and the congressman through a commission dinner in the middle of Black Caucus and you know he also
had a panel for me to speak on and before covet I was supposed to speak on the panel and I missed my flight because of traffic so I was like I can't do that to him again you know what I mean so I was like damn you'll go out in a hurricane for something you believe in and for honor and for money I'd have been like [ __ ] the money you know what I'm saying I know I would but my point is my life is like that it's it's like it's always close you know I mean and I don't mind it quick one as you might know crafted one of the sponsors of this podcast and crafted are a jewelry brand and they make really meaningful pieces of jewelry and this piece by crafted when I put it on for me it represents courage it represents ambition it represents being calm and loving and respectful and nurturing while also being the antithesis of that seemingly the antithesis of that which is um sometimes a little bit aggressive with my goals and determined and courageous and brave the really wonderful thing about crafted jewelry is it's super affordable it looks amazing the pieces hold tremendous meaning and they are really well made quick word from one of our sponsors I've got a tip for all of you that will make your virtual meeting experiences I think 10 times better as some of you may know by now Blue Jeans by Verizon offers seamless high quality video conferencing but the reason why I use blue jeans versus other video conferencing tools is because of immersion their tools make you feel more connected to the employees or customers you're trying to engage with and now they're launching one of their biggest feature enhancements to impact virtual events so far called Blue Jean Studio I actually used it the other day I did a virtual event using the studio which I think about 700 of you came to TV level production quality all done by one person with very little technical experience on a laptop so if you've got an event coming up and you're thinking about doing it virtually check out blue jean studio now let me know what you think because I genuinely believe I know this is an advert and I'm supposed to say this but I genuinely believe it's the best tool I've seen for doing really immersive simple but high
quality production virtual events one of the things that your fiance said to said to my team when we spoke to her was was that you value that and loyalty exceptionally High it's everything I could just tell you this where I'm from survival is honor so if you don't play the game right you end up dead or in jail period and you have to play the game right unspoken laws just honor and I just always looked at people that were honorable and how cool it looks to be honorable how fly it is because Honor's not convenient you know it's when it's something that's challenging and it's something that you don't want to do but you do it anyway because of Honor give me an example of what you mean when you say honor what is that in the streets what is it in business too now being a man of your work so if you agree to something that's it period is he in the street if you give your word for what a real streak dude that's it you got to give it you know what I mean like you can't like talk to certain people and say you're gonna do something that you're not they're coming looking for you you said you gonna do it you got to do it when I agree to do something even I don't even care about the money it's the your word you lie to me your ass is out you're a race to me because that could get you killed that could get you put in jail those are characteristics of people that unhonorable means you're going to tell on somebody to get yourself out of trouble that doesn't usually deserve it I was watching an interview earlier on with with Kanye and he speaks incredibly highly of you in all of and every time he's asked I was actually more compelled by you know you're heavily credited for sort of discovering Kanye and seeing something in him again like Jay-Z at a time when no one else did Kanye has become this this brand now and again he's stretches across multiple Industries in an unbelievable way in culture and art in fact all these things he's up on my wall upstairs I've actually got a big a painting from his
his show where he had that levitating stage but what did you see in him back then that you know to be responsible for the the the monolith that he is today what was it about him what made him different he would listen Kanye listened like if I said yo have cameras with you he had cameras with you when he broke his jaw and and I I had to send him that the equipment and with that Through the Wire with his jaw broke if I I remember bringing him to London I'd be like yo rap He just jump on the table and rap you know and and the thing about when you say I discovered Kanye yeah but I gave everyone in Rockefeller the same exact opportunity I fought like I fought for Kanye and protected Kanye I did that for every single artist he just chose to do and take the opportunity and the protection and run with it until he didn't need any more and no one else did what is his Brilliance and your assessment then he's so confident in his dreams that they happen period but but what job might not realize about Kanye and I'll probably leave it that way I'm is that my personal experience with him just watching him move around is that he's completely committed to what he's giving you every single second until he passes out he's working he doesn't have a personal life that I've seen every second is devoted to art and it's it's in his hand it's Insanity as well you know he said it he's like yo I'm Dame Dash with a whole lot of money and he is but you know the thing is he has a whole lot of money because he talks and works with corporate but look how it triggers you know what I mean so what it means is no matter how much money you make if there's still somebody impeding on your art you're going to be unhappy and that's why my advice is always to do it on your own
just for the happiness value of it [ __ ] the money if we all said forget the money we'd make so much more probably not in the short time though right but in the meantime you're having mad fun when you're working on your dream money doesn't matter if you really truly love what you're doing if you're doing it for the love of the art you ain't really worried about the money in that moment as long as you can continue to do it there's a trade-off though isn't that I've experienced that my life and it's kind of what you were speaking to there it's the business side of you that keeps talking because you still love money me yeah I do love money to be fair that's why you're conflicted yeah and I've taken I think I've taken investment in all the companies not these days but yeah the last 10 years it doesn't sound like it gets you uninspired but that's why when you we spoke offline and you said I quit my job I was like didn't you just say you sold a company how could you still call it a job yeah so I saw that this is a job it's not fun no more I don't got a job when you look at these people say in can you you know case I don't want to talk about him be on this point but um obviously it's made him a billionaire the trade-off you're speaking to is that you know he's had these frictions with the corporations and stuff like that but puts him in a position now where he can as he is doing go It Alone be an independent all I'm saying is regardless of what it ends up in war so if you get either way either you have to walk away from your company or go to war one of the two correct yeah most of the time yeah if you look at I mean look at Steve Jobs with no look at you he got fired from happening let's talk about you yeah yeah so it sounds to me like you've got went public and got uninspired yeah lost control is that you gave away your control for money yeah why would you give your free think about this right so when slavery became in America illegal
everyone that had slaves were still lawmakers that used to have slaves they still were passing laws so can you imagine this conversation yo what are we going to do now we don't have slaves well we have to make it where they are slaves but they don't know it how do we do that well let's suppress them and let's make them fight each other so every time one kills we get one kill and then one goes to jail we get two for one plus they all have kids they have kids so now they don't have parents they're disenfranchised so now the kids do the same exact thing because they have nobody to lead them you understand what I'm saying it's just the plan to make us think we're winning when we're losing but what we really do is we give away our freedom so what happens is you commit a crime you hurt your brother and now legally you're in Chains you're put in a cage and you're working for slave wages and now instead of slave master or Master is Warden or Co or at least that's what we call them in in the states I don't know what they call like a it's called correction officer CEO or Warden whoever runs the jail it's a plan so they always trick us into giving away our freedom by dangling a bag the bag though because sometimes it's man-made money is man-made the value of money is made based on what a man says but real currency is love and that's God made so why would you listen just logically to man telling you that his currency is more powerful than God's currency which is love I'm going with God's currency every time just because it's logical and that's another thing logically I just believe God has to be a woman why can you create life but God creates life can a woman create life so what would be the closest thing to God the creator of life would be a woman but of course a man because they have muscle would trick the rest of the world into believing that man would be if if War and people fighting
is the least smartest thing in the world to do and that's men do that all day it's the most destructive thing to do is bad for business but it's good for someone else's whoever's selling bullets you understand what I'm saying and men do this all day so if you know men been running this [ __ ] for a while and [ __ ] is [ __ ] up I would love to see what life looks like what women want to thinks I would love that the host end of your career the Rockefeller chapter do you have any regrets surrounding that when you look back and think I wish I'd done that differently I wish someone had told me this thing that's Rockefeller that [ __ ] is art why would I want to mess with that look how it's impacted the world you know what I mean like yeah it'll be things certain things that just because I know better I do different but who cares man I was like a kid what are those things if you're giving me I wouldn't I wouldn't have been so generous with Jake to Jake it was more friendship for me and money for him and I always felt that but I ignored it a little you regret ignoring that I don't regret it I just I wouldn't have the things that I wouldn't have let certain things happen because I didn't think they could happen you know what I'm saying like oh he would never do that but he did things that I thought he would never do so now I would be like oh he would do that and I would make sure it didn't happen so Rockefeller would probably still exist right now I made those mistakes too it is what it is actually the life that I got after Rockefeller was so [ __ ] it's been so fulfilling and I've had so much fun you know I just opened up art galleries all over the world and made music with cool people and I just I just been doing cool [ __ ] for the last 10 years I was I wasn't compelled by the uh what you said earlier and you said Rockefeller would still exist yeah okay you tell me what was the in the Rockefeller and why it happened uh from what I understand and again this is just what I've read there was a dinner that took place between you and
Jay where Jay wanted to sell Rockefeller to Def Jam no that's not where okay there you go we had we we met at dinner because I had heard from LA Reid that Jay was like I'll take the job of president but Damon and Biggs can't be down with Rockefeller and LA Reid was like yo and I thought John McNeely had said this [ __ ] I like Jay could have never said that and we went and he did me like public place the whole [ __ ] and told me this [ __ ] and I I was just like [ __ ] serious Jay told you though he said yeah I want to be looked at as a businessman and as long as you're around I can't be looked at as a businessman but I was like what's that gotta do a Rockefeller so he was like yo y'all could have Rockefeller but just give me my Reasonable Doubt Masters back I said let me think about and I went and did a screening of The Woodsman and I was like yo come with me to the screening so he could walk the carpet he's like nah you're all dressed up and I was like Snicker never helps but my point is regardless of what Rockefeller still existed it's just I didn't run it so why isn't there still a Rockefeller Rockefeller was sold right Jay was they gave Jake it was sold but they gave Jay to run Rockefeller so Kanye was still there everybody was still there why is there no more Rockefeller you tell me well usually when a rapper runs other rappers it doesn't happen it doesn't work no more it just means there was no Rockefeller unless I run it that's it so I would have continued to run it I wouldn't have put that you know I'd dealt with it different and how when you're going forward and like well I didn't want to run Rockefeller no more I was done with that I was at that time I was already at rockware my office was not I wasn't [ __ ] with music no more and real quick was making a lot of money right yeah but it was just more I was just inspired I was just sick of being in that building and dealing with dumb [ __ ] I was done with the music business I wanted to do fashion I just I was done with it so I looked at it as an out like out of obligation I would have still ran Rockefeller because I gave my commitment but because they
was acting silly I was like yo take it I want to go anyway you know what I'm saying but you know how did you feel towards Jay-Z now I don't feel nothing no no bad feelings no good feelings no feelings I deal with feelings and they would probably not be so complimentary he's obviously achieved you know tremendous success in all he's done in multi-industries and all that kind of thing what is what is it about him that you think has put him in that position his characteristics I don't want to talk about Jake you don't want to talk about him not really like you know I know what Rockefeller was and how we did business so it's hard to I I don't even try to figure that [ __ ] out okay you have a really unique perspective in the sense that you you know yourself Kanye J you got to see the the characteristics that made them go on their Journeys and that's really what I was trying to get at is like what are those the difference between Jay and Kanye and I say it Jay is about the money period and Kanye is about the art and the money but it's the art you know what I mean like like like Kanye is a real artist that Kanye is in different dimensions like you know he's he really focuses on that fashion I never saw Jay do that ever not nothing there and he really focuses on his creative like he produces his own beats and then he's about like sonically he's really into how things are like like I don't even understand what the [ __ ] he's doing when he makes Beats you know what I mean like I know what it beats sound but then he does some other [ __ ] that makes it like where other people respected you know he has it's an art to what he does and um Kanye obviously has opinions you know he's not trying to fit in so Kanye's whole thing is I don't give a [ __ ] you know he's an artist that likes War but most artists I don't know I think if you will it's like art is something that you really fight for if you love it
even if your message is misunderstood like white lives matter yeah I don't understand it you don't understand his message there no Kanye holla at me bro explain that one too I didn't understand that one either I did try and read after I saw his post but I still couldn't quite grasp grasp what he was actually don't holler at me I don't want to talk about that yeah the only reason why I would want to talk to him so I could know so I could protect him that's the only reason why but other than that it's like yeah that one went that one there I love cognac seems to have bothered you seems to have bothered you that one no nothing he does bothers me I've learned I know about Kanye you know I know that his thing is to trigger so he's a trigger so if I'm not going to be triggered you know what I'm saying like he likes that [ __ ] I don't that ain't me I mean you know I it's fun to watch but certain things I'd be like but sir you know like I said we we have a relationship where if I don't agree with him we have conversations you feel me and that might be why sometimes we don't speak for a while but you know what I'm saying like with everyone that I love I'm not going to just say things are all right if they're not I'm gonna tell you my perspective on and sometimes people don't want to hear that [ __ ] I don't I don't know what's going on so I can't judge it but I wouldn't have did that [ __ ] you know what I'm saying I didn't like it but I'm saying I'm telling you right now but I'm not gonna disown them but I didn't like it he's like that person in in Thanksgiving that Uncle that you are like I have think about it like you know Stacy I have Stacy Dash at my [ __ ] Thanksgiving table imagine what that would be like it [ __ ] the elephant in the room gets addressed you understand what I'm saying but that be the reason why a lot of times it doesn't happen so often because I'm always adjusting not not because I'm you know I just honestly would like to know curiosity what did you learn from how Rockefeller came to end about business life people
I didn't look at the music I didn't look at that as business that's why I was like it's not they're not it's not real business so you got to think about I'm gonna like at that time I'm a real businessman that means I want to be strategic I want to make plans if nobody wants to do that [ __ ] and I'm doing it on my own it becomes very frustrating so I had to fight for Rocawear you know what I'm saying I had to do it on my own I had to fight for Rockefeller I had to do it on my own I was just too much fighting and then fighting for the fighting with the people that I'm fighting for it just was you know it was just like I'm not fighting for a bunch of dudes like it's just you can't get there's nothing to get from it's a game so just like yo it's a bunch of ungrateful dudes and I can't have my daughters around these dudes you know all right do you have trust issues in business yeah there's no trust issues I trust no one another drink same yes please we can just keep talking it's okay isn't it yeah it's cool we can just keep talking yeah you said you got you got you don't trust anybody do you yeah cool um my girlfriend [Laughter] you think if you make her really mad you think she's gonna you trust that she's gonna be fair what do you mean if you do something unfair yeah Will her reaction be fair yeah I trust my I mean I trust my girl but I trust Jack oh Jack well how much you trust him he has your bank account numbers and [ __ ] I'd give him my bank account numbers he would yeah my assistant Sophie I trust her as well my brother runs his Works full-time for my company Jason I trust it he actually manages all my finances my bank account all my Investment Portfolio when I do shark tank Dragon's Den we'll see how that works out it's going well so far we don't you know no no no no I'm just saying this let me just say this of course I have people around me and everyone has to deal with those
things but the trust thing is I'm cut from a certain kind of cloth so what may not be honorable to people because they're not from the same experience as me it may be different version than what I see so I don't trust that people look at things exactly the way I do like some people don't think things that are disrespectful are because they're not a boss you understand what I mean like if you're not a person that's actually paid people for service if you've never done that which a lot of people have not that judge me which I don't care then you can never ever understand what it is to pay someone and then not do their job you just never know what that is so you don't trust people nah people don't even trust themselves there's no one in your life that you trust your fiance no I I mean there's a level of trust yeah yeah I mean I trust I trust her yeah that's right I trust my girl but people you know I don't like family it's like whatever if they [ __ ] you over they do it is what it is you know that's that's their bird in the bear you know what I mean like karmically but people that I don't have to trust I don't like there's always like I trust people like yeah but there's there's never 100 you know it'll be like you never know what someone's doing when you're not looking bro people are different you know when you're a person that's cutting the checks it's hard to trust people because they're just showing you what they have to show you to get the money you feel me you know I was saying this I was you know being in Florida you understand real racism like [ __ ] is racist out there you know I mean like broke [ __ ] too the crazy [ __ ] about like racism is like being a wealthy or what could appear to be a wealthy black man with a staff and you might get someone from another culture and they'll be like but you're
still not white no matter how much money you got I don't want to be white you know what I'm saying but they still have that chip like but you know it's got one thing that's like I'm not trying to be that you think that's what it is I don't you feel what I'm saying but what I understood is I've never had to feel racism because I'm always the person that's hiring and firing people a racist is never going to act like a racist in front of me he'll get fired or worse you know what I'm saying but if you're a person that's not in that position you have to deal with racism imagine someone that's racist your boss and that's a lot of people so the only way to really combat racism is economic empowerment you have to either own the bricks you have to be the boss and then you select the people that you want around you and if they want to be racist they better internalize that and go get some therapy because a black man is telling you what to do on that point of the people you have around you how do you pick those people what are you looking for when you're hiring somebody or you're looking for someone to partner with what characteristics are you looking for they got to be the best at what they do that I need to hire them for and I prefer a certain kind of discipline what kind of discipline that every hour of the day that you work and that you love what you do you know that you that you respect my time and my money but you know it's just really at this point like when you're looking to invest in somebody you look at potential but when I'm hiring somebody now their potential has had to have already realized itself because I'm paying it's like a professional team so there's favors there's certain relationships that I have that are completely personal and I work with you because we have a personal relationship I'll help you that's personal but when I'm really paying you you just got to be at this point you need to be the best at what you do so I'm gonna look at your work
you know what I mean I just need to see your work I need to see what you've done before you work with me how like so if I hire a DP I need to see they real what do you think about pessimism and people you're working with because I've seen from watching your interviews that you seem to have a real problem with people that I hate negative people if you're negative you got to get away from me and there are people that come negative pause because that's just what they've been raised but they're skilled and it hasn't worked out because of that because it's just like you just lead with negative First you know if the first thing if I have an idea the first thing you want to talk about is the problems with it then we got an issue there's a time to talk about problems but not while I'm dreaming and hard work you know in our culture there's been a bit of a I guess a bit of a movement around hard work that you know work-life balance and these kind of conversations what do you think about work-life balance and the importance of hard work and achieving Big Dreams hard work is everything and if you look at the people you know this is misconception that black people can only have black people work for them you know what I mean like you know in the U.S more so than here probably yeah and that's where I'm coming from that's the PTSD web yeah so you know what I find is I'm not trying to only hire my culture because I I know my culture I know my culture I'm trying to take over the whole world so I'm gonna have Benetton and I have been like it's black white Chinese every kind of person in my in my crew because I want to speak every language I don't want to be wrong I don't want to be good for somebody black it's time to be good for being I'm the best human I'm going at everybody and there's also this thing where you know it's always like black people should only have education for black people and I think there should be new education for black and white people
there just needs to be no education it needs for us to figure out how to come together as a human race because it's been strategic that we've for the last hundred years we've been saying the black thing always it's always separation which gives fear which is what causes racism but I just believe if we're at least the landlords and we can make a curricula that everyone can [ __ ] with just us make it it's just about us being the ones to make the [ __ ] I believe it would be good for everybody no fear because you know we're not worried about someone else and them taking over what it looks like we already know what it looks like you know what I mean to be like yo let's keep everybody happy as long as this division is nothing gets done and again that's another thing that I I feel is strategic so when I make a movie I'm not like yo this movie's for black people I'm like this [ __ ] for everybody this ain't just good for black people this is my [ __ ] better than everybody's [ __ ] you feel me I'm not just trying to educate us I'm trying to educate everybody because if we're the only one educated then we really gonna have a big fight because once we get an enlightened and people acting stupid we ain't gonna have it so we have to evolve everyone you understand what I mean it was everyone needs to catch up we're all human forget to pass so much learn from it but let's talk about how to move forward in the future collectively you mentioned at the start of this conversation that you went and had therapy to understand yourself a little bit and to understand your triggers and what was triggering you and where that came from what age did that happen well being a child like myself I was always put in therapy no matter what but I didn't talk um but as I got older like when Aaliyah died I just always was looking at it like I might need a consultant that didn't have a dog in the fight to tell me if my actions were right or wrong or to give me advice sort of like a consularity but what I understand about therapy is black people don't get it so
the study of therapy doesn't come from our trauma it comes from other people so when we finally do get this in the wrong language so we have to find therapists that actually speak our language that come from similar traumas unless they're not to talk to us so that's why I have a program called healing this gangster Taj he's also in the commission is a therapist that's been through everything if not more and now is actually a doc guided Doctrine and he's a therapist you know what I mean and that's the person I talk to daily like any time that I'm unsure about how to react to certain things the times I'm the most unsure is with my children and that's when I call him but then you know I had to fight to even be able to see my daughters so I had to go to court order therapy and I learned a lot there about how to raise my daughters so the difference between 25 year old Damon and 50 year old Damon 25 year old Damon would have thought because I Boogie I was a single father no one ever talks about that um he went to court and got him but I used to bring him into my environment and thought that was fathering but with a child you have to go to your child's environment and I need a therapy to actually show me that how much better it is for me to become a seven-year-old than for my seven-year-old they have to become a 50 year old you understand what I'm saying and be in a place that they don't care about see the things that you care about as an adult your kids don't care about just think about what you cared about at certain ages so you'd be like oh but you know you don't care none of my kids care about any famous people they don't even know them until they get older they don't care about anything that I have because that's all they know it's not like a big deal it's not like a comparison like they're not in another you know life where they're you know some social class below and then they're like oh you know I mean it's just what they know they just want time and they want you to do what they're doing and they want you to speak in their language and that's what I've learned that's why I've made all of these with my girl for my son she's made children's books and
syllabuses from the womb to three years old and all this programming on how to interact with your child you understand what I'm saying so I'm a way better parent now which is most important what was the hardest moment in your life when when my mom's died when Aaliyah died when people die that's the [ __ ] that's the hardest but everything else is easy when I read about um well obviously remember the news the global news when Alia died but when I read about it before you came here now that I'm in a relationship with someone that I love um I I tried to play out well I played out in my head what that would feel like don't do it yeah I just couldn't I couldn't get there my brain wouldn't let me go though it's a it's a pain that you know couldn't understand but surviving that pain has made me very cool what was that period of your life like it was sad but you know things were going on so it was like me it was me organizing my self to still be strong because when people see that you're weak they attack and people are actually getting cute it was it was me proving to myself that I'm a real General that I I could work with a broken heart is there a cost to that always being strong nah I'm not saying that I didn't feel I'm just saying I had to learn how I had to lead by example so in that moment I was like the way I react to this is how every single person that looks up to me is going to react when they lose someone they love you understand what I mean and you know being at you know when when you're running or you're the you know not to say when when you're the head and you're a lot of different people are depending on your strength it's a life I've chosen you feel me so when you choose to be a certain way or take a certain role like I would rather do that than sit around and be sad you know what I'm saying like I don't want to sit around and be sad you know for me it's like
life I have so much fun that when natural tragedies happen when things happen that are going to happen to people just you know a matter of when I can't let that [ __ ] up my fun it's just a test but you know it takes reading and and therapy to organize to be able to move at a professional level but you know your five children if they had to be successful and happy that in their lives what are the what lessons are you imparting on them to set them up for success and happiness you know the thing is the the people that are the hardest to talk to are my children you know but I think my daughter Ava who's been through every you know as a youngster have been through the wars and all that but like where she is now I really feel good about my parenting skills because she knows what happiness is and she's just so she just loves the family so much I don't really think that way with my children you know I mean it's just like I just want them to be happy and I just feel like it's my job to make sure that they're happy but if they don't find it on their own anything about children when you have children is after certain age they're not children no more so you could be like I got children I don't have five kids I have like three adults you know what I'm saying or at least two but they're still my kids so if they're not happy then I want to make sure they are if their dreams like my job is to make my kids dreams come true but they have to know what they are do your kids know what their dreams are nah it's a conversation I have often with them and I'd be having like yo write it down they don't even listen to me I'll be like should I get paid to save they don't listen to for free you know but they're still perfect to me you know it's hard because the good part thing about like baby
dusko my son is that Rocky is instilling everything that I'm instilling there's no contradictions like if I say something she's not saying I'm wrong so there's no choice it has to be made we're both instilling the same thing so I'm curious to see how that one's going to work out all my kids are different all of them you visualize you visualize for your whole life I was I was reading about how when you were building Rockefeller you would pull up at houses and go and view houses that you knew you couldn't afford because one day you need to be able to afford them and this this sort of thread of visualization I still did it really still pulling up our houses yeah but I could always buy them but I promise you once I go look at a house and I want it I figure it out my question is like what are you what are you visualizing now you talked about living in that neighborhood where people sold out but what is what is Dame's right now I'm as far as business or personal both personal I'm visualizing like 100 acres having a farm in a studio and just frolicking you know but having a private jet you know what I mean and maybe it's in Hawaii you know that's there's a lot of things there business is turning game Dash studios into what I call like a Disney you know you know visualizing buying schools going into marketplaces where you know they might think it's dilapidated and taking a something a building that's messed up and turning it into something creative and bringing kids in there and teaching them you know there's a couple of laws on visualizing passing or getting passed I'm visualizing what our culture looks like in the web 3 space getting past the monkeys you know and making it more about creativities and not some static you know I'm saying that's not creative that could have you know racial implications and connotations with all these things going on you still said earlier that you feel like you're behind schedule in your life's roadmap yeah if you were on schedule what would that look like all those things would be
true all of those things would have been realized all of those dreams yeah it's crazy because I think what I'm most bothered about is the fashion business for me because you know I did a lot with Rachel and then like it's like we flushed that one down the toilet and I really love fashion so I I I I I think the next thing that I want to get back in fashion and also my age like I'm 50 and I've always wondered like what I would look like fashion wise at 50 because you know Styles change and I'm not trendy I'm more like I'm kind of but not really you feel me and a lot of the people that I've molded or at least that I worked with when they were younger are now doing very well in fashion so I'm like I always like the fashion world that was always my favorite world so I gotta get back I think I want to get back into fashion we have a closing tradition on this podcast where the Lost guest asks a question for the next guest they don't know who they're asking it for so and I don't get to see it until open the book the question that's been left for you is what are you most missing in your life it actually says what are you missing most in your life right now I've been missing my children because they're all doing their own thing and I can't never get them all at one time you know I mean like I gotta get like a day a couple times a year that all my kids like I'm always with three at a time or two I never have them all in the same house I'm missing that I'm missing my daughter's a lot because I've been on the road I'm mentally here I'm always curious like if Alia and Rocky knew each other what that would look like you know what I'm saying because I see so much of like Rocky has a lot of similarities to Aaliyah that people would not even understand um you still miss her yeah yeah she's she was the coolest like you know unless you were able to experience so you could it'd be hard for you to
understand she she was she still is she was magic but again the type of magic she is it was like when I could I never thought I'd see that magic again but I saw it in Raquel in a very unsuspecting place which was odd but yeah she was different and you know to me like in history I think she'll go down is probably the coolest woman singer coolest of all time and when she was alive she was like had that aura of coolness of being the coolest and she told me I was the coolest you feel me so you know what does your life look like how do you feel about yourself when Aaliyah tells you that you're the coolest and Aaliyah you understand thank you you understand what I'm saying what kind of confidence do you have what kind of validation do you have when you could really be like Aaliyah told me I was the coolest person she ever met a lot of people have told me that what Aaliyah told me that I'm so inspired I've been really inspired by so many things you've said but really the the dedication to Art and being an artist I think is something that people don't speak about enough because everyone's trying to get the bag and business and build but the art is obviously where the emotion the love and the expression the bag has always been a distraction money is the devil bro makes you forget everything that makes you happy there's no way to get both at the same time yeah be all right be artists I'm doing it I just told you it comes with a fight but like you're an artist right a DJ I write books I have a musical that tours the country that's my art that's the piece of me where I go I'm doing this for money and it doesn't if we make money we give the money to charity is that when you're having your most fun yeah 100 I mean exactly so why not make money off what makes you the happiest yeah that's a good point usually because you don't have confidence in the fact that you could
but that's what I decided to do I have complete confidence in my Artistry I just want to make money off me I'll help people get money but first and foremost I gotta be about me thank you thank you for your time thanks for coming here you're someone that I've I've admired from a far for many many years from an art perspective a business perspective and I've watched your videos and your your mindset I think is the thing that I that I think everybody can take the most from because the mindset and your mindset really is like a fishing rod it's like a way to maneuver life in order to orientate yourself towards success and good outcomes Dame thank you quick one it's so crazy that in the last couple of months I've had so many people tag me on Instagram even on Telegram and in my Twitter DMs in a picture of them starting their heal journey and it's one of the most amazing things in my life that I get to do a podcast which of course needs money to to fuel and I have a sponsor like Hill who I genuinely believe is going to help every single person who starts their heel Journey change their life because this podcast the central intention of this podcast is to help people live better lives it gives me my protein it gives me my vitamins minerals it's plant-based it's low in sugar gluten-free it does all of that in a small drink that tastes good there are other products there's Foods there's the hot and savory collection many other things but for me this ready to drink is the absolute savior of my diet throughout the week where I'm moving at such Pace look I don't want to labor the point but if you haven't tried he'll give it a try and if you do tag me Instagram wherever you try it give me a tag [Music] this is [Music]