WEBVTT - Episode 282 w/ April Walker 0:00:00.360 --> 0:00:02.759 Welcome to Drink Champs, the production of The Black Effect 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:17.680 and I heart Radio and his Drink Chess motherfucking podcasts. 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:22.000 A legendary queen's rapper, He's Segre. It is your boy 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:25.400 in O R. He's a Miami hip hop pioneer, is 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:28.120 d j e FN. Together they drink it up with 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:32.640 some of the biggest players in the most professional, unprofessional 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:36.159 podcast and yet number one sorts for drunk fast drinks. 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:40.720 Motherfucking is New year' z that's time for drinking Champs. 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:49.400 Drink up, motherfucking mother. What did Goold be hoping? This? 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:51.760 This is your boy in O R? What up? Is 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:53.720 d j e f N And this is Drink has 0:00:53.800 --> 0:01:01.520 motherfucking Happy Hour mass Up And one of the our 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:04.200 guests today. One of our best things that I started 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:08.400 to do if and was to do research right. And 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:12.680 when I researched this strong woman, I really like, you've 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:17.640 never seen the X Man and you've seen Storm because 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:21.920 Storm was the strong woman of X Man that can 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:27.560 turn into anything that she wanted to. And when I researched, 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:35.160 I felt like I was researching Storm. Nobody else watched 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:41.880 Red Common Books. Here it's said Storm, It's mystique. And 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:46.040 when I tell you from her first store in Brooklyn 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:51.640 to her conquering the world, there's a lot of people 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:56.800 who cannot say I worked with Biggie and Tupa. There's 0:01:56.800 --> 0:01:59.560 a lot of people who cannot say I worked with 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:05.120 one E MC and Jay Z. There's not a lot 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:08.800 of people period in those categories. And when you google 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:14.240 and when you understand the line that it meant to 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:17.680 the culture, and do you understand that she stood back 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:19.400 and said, you know what, I want the line to 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:25.119 speak for herself. For years I said I'm gonna take 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:30.160 the step back. And then now years later you see 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:33.800 what it involved to what clothing means to hip hop, 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:39.880 how artists actually gets signed and hires a stallus. If 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:45.320 this woman that we have today wasn't here and didn't 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:48.960 take the forefront of you know, we had the fooboos, 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:51.560 we had the car canas, we never had a woman 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:55.480 just running the forefront. And in case you don't know 0:02:56.520 --> 0:03:00.919 how proud we are of this history, In case y'all 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:03.840 don't know, y'all need to stand up and make some 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:14.600 noise for the honorable, the impeccable. A wow, thank you, 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:18.919 thank you, thank you. I mean I'm just humbled by that. No, no, 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:22.800 you know what what's crazy is obviously I had to 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:26.320 do my research, so I went and what documentary you 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:29.320 told me to watch Fresh Dressed? Fresh Dress? We watched 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:32.560 watched Fresh Dress, but before I watched Fresh Dress, I 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:38.400 watched the remix. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it was basically you, 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:44.760 Misa and that documentary. In my opinion, I did not 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:48.680 realize because to me, as an outside of looking in 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:53.320 as an insider, I just thought, you guys Gucci send 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:55.840 you guys clothing, and you guys just cut it up. 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:01.600 No listen, I was old, naive. I just thought that 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:03.920 you guys had it made like I thought that if 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:08.880 he was a designer, you basically got the fabric, you 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:12.600 cut it up, um and just get to I had 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:16.880 no idea of the struggles, the flights, and when I'm 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:18.880 researching you, because I know when you come out saying 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:22.800 Holy ship, I was ashamed of myself because here I 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:25.000 am as a person that's in the culture, a part 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:27.599 of the culture, but I had no idea of what 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:30.840 you guys went through. I was just gonna say, like, 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:35.559 that's why it's important for this show. Look, you're telling 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:38.280 our stories and we can't count on other people to 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:40.799 tell our stories. We have to tell our own stories. 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:43.479 So that's one of the reasons I wanted to be here, 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:50.200 Thank you God. A little problems, and I've been listening, like, 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:54.040 not just this story. You tell so many important stories 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:57.960 and unsung heroes that really have really done a lot 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:01.200 for the culture, but people might not know. So the 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:04.240 fact that you dig in like that, it's priceless. No, no, 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:06.279 I love it. So you know what I want to 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:08.560 go first? I want to go to your first store, 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:15.480 um Fashion in the fall, right, yep, that was fashion 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:19.479 and Effect. Ye Clinton hill Brooklyn. Okay, I just want 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:22.320 you to understand because a lot of y'all didn't make 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:25.400 noise when she said Clinton hill Brooklyn because you're probably 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:28.440 thinking of Clinton hill Brooklyn now. But back in the days, 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:31.839 Clinton hill Brooklyn was very rough. I'll pack that picture 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:37.720 so right. I started in eighties seven. So when I 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:42.000 first started, you gotta think Reaganomics crack error. You gotta 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:45.240 think New York City was different, right, So the hustlers 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:47.880 were hanging with the seals, The seals were hanging with 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:50.240 you know, it was just like you go to Bentley's. 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:52.840 You can see everything at the bar together. Okay, tell 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:55.320 me just case y'all don't know. Bitley's was one of 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:59.080 the gloves in New York City, by the way, she 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:06.200 flost from us by you heap. So when you think 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:12.160 about the eighties, right, we're talking about it was electric 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:17.600 in New York. It was like the hustlers. No disrespect 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:21.640 to artists and rappers and mcs. But a lot of 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:25.520 that what you see in videos comes from that eighties 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:32.320 period on the streets of what was happening, right, like you, 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:45.120 that's very real. Yeah, that's so. So it was just 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:48.400 like this period where you were hustling trying to figure 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:51.520 it out. And then at the same time I was graduating. 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:55.360 I graduated high school. I went to Lackland Bishop in 0:06:55.360 --> 0:07:03.520 Brooklyn Tech. Oh my god, no, no Bishop Lloyd. Okay. 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:06.680 My other friend who sold cracks went to I went. 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:16.160 I went to school with Mark Jackson, my Queen's basketball players. Okay. 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:20.560 So then and Kenny Smith went to Malloyd because we 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:27.280 were both here. You were right there, um, But that 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:31.800 whole period was electric because that was to me, when 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:37.440 a commercialization like it started, the spirit of entrepreneurship kicked 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:40.559 in hard for hip hop you think about fresh Fest, 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:44.440 you think about run DMC my Adidas, you think about 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:49.880 like it's becoming a commercially viable business. Right, and then 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:55.160 Public Enemy came out that that Oh my god, they 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:57.840 shut it down and they were speaking to us. Right, 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:02.160 it was everything we were feeling. So one night at 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:05.280 the Apollo, after the Apollo, me and my girls went 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:10.720 to Dapper Dance that nighttime, right after amateur night at 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:13.800 the Apollo at night at there's a lot of stuff 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:19.480 going on there. Right, we walk at Fabric everywhere, he's hustling, 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:22.920 he's out there like he has lines here. His cheapest, 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:25.440 the Lord sweatsuit at that time we're talking in the 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:28.320 eighties was three hundred dollars. You know what that is 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:32.800 now that's like three g's right, you know what I 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:36.760 mean from the eighties, that's without anything on it. So 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:40.439 automatically I just was seeing, Okay, hold on, when you 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:47.040 say without anything on the logo, without logo s nothing 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:51.120 three hundred, right, And then it went up from there, 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:56.200 Like I remember Diane Dixon, right she ran track Olympics. 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:58.640 Started shout out to Diane. We both were cool, but 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:01.680 like I remember, and she bought that jacket she bought 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:06.400 and he was making meat coats, reversible, Gucci everything. He 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:08.360 was doing it better than they were at that time. 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:11.800 So for me, the light bulb went off, like, we 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:14.960 have nothing like this in Brooklyn for us, because y'all 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:18.559 have to understand, Brooklyn was very different than harlemm was 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:22.520 very different than Queen's. Burrows were everything, and Queen's we 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:26.720 had the Coliseum are Harlem you had Dapper Dan. Brooklyn 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:29.640 you had I'll be square More. Yeah, we have, We 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:33.599 definitely had that. But that was the only known for girldfronts. No, 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:38.640 I mean Conda. We we we used to go to 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:42.319 Canal Street and we used if we went to Canal Street. Look, 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:45.439 he's still got to Canal Street right now. You look 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:58.080 at her. I think a lot of people that and also, um, 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:03.199 the Diamond Exchange, you know. So it was a few options. 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:07.000 But some cats went to let me ask you something, 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:11.760 growing up in hip hop, what was the first hip 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:20.480 hop brand that actually hit mm hmm was it fool? No? 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:23.000 So for us it was it was For me, I'm 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:26.400 an answer Walkerware, but I'm gonna say like we were 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:37.400 so cross colors. So what happened was just the timeline. 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:40.640 So I opened Fashion and Effect and Carl had Carl 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:45.280 can I had a tailorship and Flatbush called um it 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:47.640 was a tailor shop. And then it was him and 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:51.080 a Z And then in another part of flat Bush 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:54.439 there was Miguel Navaro, God blessed the Dead, and it 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:56.160 was the three of us and we were making a 0:10:56.240 --> 0:10:58.360 lot of stuff. Now Carl came out to l A 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:02.200 to try to to get out the production. I'm still 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:06.440 at Fashion and Effect. And then during this storm growing 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:11.800 course colors started bubbling Cross Colors and damage was they 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:15.839 both black old? Cross Colors was damage. Damage was in 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:18.480 black You're working on my childhood right now. Damage was 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:21.320 not always stood. Damage was looking at you ross my mind. 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:26.439 Yeahs doing it was damage to right. So damage was 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:31.800 not black old. That's not to my knowledge, Holy molo. Okay, 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:34.040 all right, they did a lot of damage in the 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:38.400 everybody board, like you know, I just like everybody. Cross 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:41.800 Colors was though. Cross Colors was they were if you remember, 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:45.600 they were the first brand to be on Black Enterprise 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:48.560 as the first one hundred million dollar brand it sales, 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:53.120 So that was like the first one to like break 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:58.559 through the who's created cross Colors? Carl Jones and TJ. 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:04.240 Walker to to this. So now what they I mean? 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:06.880 I was too young at that time to think about. 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:09.959 I was. I was born in seventy seven, So I 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:13.080 wore across colors, but I didn't know what the culture 0:12:13.160 --> 0:12:16.720 actually accepting it seems like. So we had this, Yeah, 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:19.319 we had this conversation on the plane. I flew in 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:22.320 with Cliff. Cliff Love shout out to Cliff. He's saying 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:25.920 what he actually danced with Houdini and then went on 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:28.960 to do all this amazing product placement in the field. 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:32.680 But we were talking about it, and the East Coast 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:35.920 didn't really wear a cross colors too hard. It wasn't 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:40.240 it wasn't like um a disk, but they were very colorful. 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:44.400 And you gotta think early nineties, late eighties New York 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:46.640 wasn't doing colors like that in a big way, you 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:48.920 know what I mean. It was more the West Coast, 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:52.400 but some people did wear it, and they wore the 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:56.240 black red and girl of like sitcoms and stuff. Yeah, 0:12:56.360 --> 0:12:59.760 they had this product place where strong to me, cross 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:01.840 color was lit. But I was like eight years old 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:08.520 and it was cool. It's just different. So I wonder, 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:11.520 because when we google your name, so many pictures come on, 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:16.960 so many beautiful pictures of artists that we can never 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:21.360 ever interview, We can never speak to them. So I 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:24.000 would like to go to a couple of your pictures 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:30.199 and ask you, this is the story that you remember 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:36.199 from this. Obviously were gonna start with Tupac, the Tupac picture. 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:40.440 When we google you, a Tupac picture comes up. There's 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:42.360 a couple, isn't There's no there's more than one, but 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:45.520 it's that one one with the with the jersey on. 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:53.199 I wasn't there that day. How does this picture happen? 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:56.719 Did he buy it? Did he call you? Did you 0:13:56.880 --> 0:13:59.240 send it to him? What does this? How does this happen? 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:06.600 So ed lover mark sex. There was a crew Mark 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:10.640 Sex was part of No Face. No Face was under 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:13.719 the umbrella of deaf Jam. Deaf Jam. They had a 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:17.480 label out of queens right, so like they were at 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:23.960 lovers people like stretched right. So I knew all of them. 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:28.000 So I started styling like they had b WP bitches 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:31.840 with problems um and I was styling at this time too, right. 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:35.680 I started styling from fashion and Effect. My first styling 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:41.560 job was with Audio two. I don't care that crashed 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:44.720 up Bends. That was us and shirt Kings. We did 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:48.320 that together. So that was their first name's dropping to 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:50.080 my signs. Let me just let me just for the 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:54.000 for the for the listeners that don't know, I'm from 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:56.880 Queens born and raised. At one point, if you didn't 0:14:56.880 --> 0:15:00.040 have a shirt from Shirt Kings, it wasn't flocked. You 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.120 have to actually go there and get your shirt spray painted. 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:06.680 Absolutely shot, what's your name on it? And you had 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:08.080 to go back to the hood, like you had to 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:10.360 go all the way the air and go back to 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:13.400 the and have your shirt spray painting and be like, yeah, 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:17.960 le's my name. So yeah, I just wanted we can 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:21.280 continue shout out to Shirk for sure. They were one 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:23.400 of the first two. When we talk about first, right, 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:27.560 shirt King, you can't say not then we gotta say that, right. Yeah. 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:30.640 I never looked at shirt King's merchandise. Yeah, but they 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:33.160 were kind of like they just don't get that credit. 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:39.400 You're right, they really did everywhere everywhere. But I'm saying 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:44.040 people were copying that style of the right yeah, so 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:49.280 um so yeah, so stretching um poc started hanging out 0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:53.960 and I don't remember which came first, but I remember 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:56.320 seeing him on a set when I was styling b 0:15:56.600 --> 0:16:02.240 WP and then um another time. I think it might 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:04.960 have been when I went to try out for Juice 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:10.880 UM in the movie. I just really wanted At this time, 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:13.120 I was still doing fashion and effects, so I wanted 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:15.360 to get my clothes out there so anyway I could. 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:18.000 I was tumbling, so I wore a customed to Lord 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:21.040 sweatsuit that was crazy with the bucket hat, and I 0:16:21.160 --> 0:16:29.760 had my cards. I didn't matter matter. But I remember 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:31.920 him stopping me like, yo, where you get that? And 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:35.360 I was like, I made it and when you say him, yeah, 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:39.320 gave the card and so um. And I don't know 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:41.360 if that was the first or the second time, but 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:43.920 we kept seeing each other to the point where, um, 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:46.280 but your brand wasn't known yet when you meet, it wasn't. 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:48.840 I was. I was still doing a lot of styling, 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:51.640 and I was making suits. At this time. I was 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:54.440 doing something called the rough and Rugged suit, which was 0:16:54.560 --> 0:16:57.080 like I got that in my notes. Okay, yeah, it 0:16:57.200 --> 0:17:04.080 was a heavy denim suit, rough and rugged suit. Cool, 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:07.159 go ahead, Yeah, but this rough suit caught fire. So 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:09.720 like crossover, you think about the video with E. P. 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:13.160 M D. They went like all black with the lord 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:15.560 like that was that suit. But then we started doing 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:18.080 it and Denomen just a lot of people started wearing it, 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:21.480 so that gave me the gumption to start walk away. 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:26.719 But Pop, it was me seeing him styling a lot 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:29.000 of different people because we started styling a lot of 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:34.440 people as well from the store. From the store, so 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:40.439 what happened was what had happened was we're at the store. 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:44.000 This is still the eighties and we didn't have the internet, 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:47.600 we didn't have anything, so word of mouth was the credible. 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:52.280 So I remember Milking is coming in light and Swatch 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:58.080 told Milk and he was doing in out and they 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:03.520 were like, I want in em c light mild milk, 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:13.080 Milking gazz and Milk is em like brother and then 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:18.000 Shaggy shine Head right. This is old school but their 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:21.520 classic and they are legends in Brooklyn. So Brooklyn was 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:25.160 final in Brooklyn. And then one day a little round kid, 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:29.120 Biggie Smalls, fifteen years old, he walked in. We had 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:31.600 the airbrushing, we were doing airbrushing. We were doing a 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:35.720 crilege fashion and effect. Now Bige was from my neighborhood, 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:38.040 so I had always see him on the corner coming 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:40.360 out the train. We'd always not but I didn't know him, 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:45.159 but this air brush shirt stopped him. Came in the window, 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:49.520 found out he was you know, his love was hip 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:54.680 hop and he was still like trying to get some 0:18:56.280 --> 0:18:58.320 He wasn't, he was just wrapping and he was like 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:02.680 talking to me and real cool. And that's that he 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:05.879 started supporting us, and that's how we built those relationships. 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:09.480 So from that, Milk came back. That's how I started 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:12.359 finding out about Stilin. After we did that cover, he 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:15.920 was like, can you guys style our video? And I 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:18.080 was like, yeah, I didn't even know what Stalind was, 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:20.680 but I was like, yeah, if we get paid for 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:27.359 it too. So we styled the video and um, it 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:31.320 wasn't that one um. But from that I saw, wow, 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:34.040 that's another revenue stream branch and we needed them all. 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:36.959 So I was like, we're gonna start styling, and uh, 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:41.200 that's how we started Stalind. We did um Shock, we 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:46.520 did um everybody's from Shock took like with his VIDEOSO nickings, 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:52.560 UM like they a lot of walk away and that 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:55.520 we said, Um, we did a lot. We did l 0:19:55.880 --> 0:19:59.200 Cool Jas Tour. We did like from one end of 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:02.560 it to the that all naughty by nature. I stowed 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:13.760 them for years, one dmc um and only walk Away. Yeah. 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:19.200 I was very ambiguous on purpose because I remember having 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:23.240 a conversation with my father when I was first decided 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:25.639 I was gonna go for it with walk Away, and 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:28.399 I was like, I don't know if they'll accept a 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:33.520 woman making men's clothes, you know, And he was like, well, 0:20:33.520 --> 0:20:37.560 if you got a chance that, don't do it. Yeah. 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:40.840 So I just was like, let the productly, just make 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:43.680 dope product, put it out there, Let that be the 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:47.800 star and let people rocket. Like we never had official ambassadors. 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:50.200 It was just love at that time with hip hop, 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:53.880 Like hip hop was energy feed energy, and we were 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:56.680 all building and growing at that time. So it was 0:20:56.760 --> 0:20:58.760 just like I believe in you, you believe in me. 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:02.080 Less rock, but you were officially styling them, right, I 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:05.080 was styling some of them and then some wasn't. Style. 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:09.400 Was the first first bird, first one giving the flowers 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:13.240 right now, very first one that was famous or a 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:16.000 couple of the first Okay, So I would say milk, 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:18.520 I would say audio two, I would say Sean had 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:27.119 and Shaggy damn Sean, and let's make And then right 0:21:27.200 --> 0:21:29.879 after that pop and just like all the you know, 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:34.280 like the ground. I met him when he was a 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:37.080 roadie and then he became that and then he kept going. 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:39.639 Then when he did Above the Ram, he called and 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:42.960 he was like, Yo, I'm doing this movie. I want 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:44.920 you to do the clothes for the movie. So I 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:49.400 remember him. I met him and we went to the trailer. 0:21:49.520 --> 0:21:52.919 I met the costume designer the costume war job, but Karen, 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:54.920 and he was telling her I want her to do 0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:57.600 all all and she was like, she can't do everything. 0:21:58.040 --> 0:22:00.480 He was like, well, I want all black designers. M h. 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:06.560 So yeah, I got to do um the camouflages outfit 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:09.920 in that that's walk away and also that hooked vest 0:22:10.200 --> 0:22:12.000 that's seen with him in the grave with the pants 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:14.440 and the shirt. I did that and then I was like, 0:22:14.560 --> 0:22:17.040 if you need more black designers, call five thousand and 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:24.800 one Flavors. That's how they got in it to night Yoke. 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:31.119 I'm not gonna lie like I said, Um, I always 0:22:31.160 --> 0:22:34.000 thought you had it. I don't want to say like 0:22:34.080 --> 0:22:36.560 a given. I thought you hadn't made. I thought if 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:39.680 you was a black designer like you came, you came 0:22:39.760 --> 0:22:42.480 with l L like like you walk in well, just 0:22:42.560 --> 0:22:46.440 get a deal. Don't walk aware, Um, you just just 0:22:46.520 --> 0:22:49.239 had tupac and just walk and you guys just had 0:22:49.280 --> 0:22:52.840 a deal. I had no idea to struggle that you guys, 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:56.320 I mean researching you like it was a better sweet 0:22:56.359 --> 0:22:58.760 because some of it. I cried and I was like, really, 0:22:58.840 --> 0:23:01.880 this is what black designers go through. And and when 0:23:01.880 --> 0:23:04.359 you hit Kanye going on the rant and you just 0:23:04.680 --> 0:23:07.720 like like, well, you don't know what's going on. And 0:23:07.800 --> 0:23:10.080 then and then you actually listen to the names that 0:23:10.200 --> 0:23:12.560 he was saying and you go back and research a 0:23:12.640 --> 0:23:16.560 little bit, You're like, he has a point. I had 0:23:16.720 --> 0:23:21.600 no I fucking did. It's been it's been a journey 0:23:21.760 --> 0:23:26.119 for sure, add putting a woman into that equation and 0:23:26.200 --> 0:23:30.200 then being Blexican black in Mexican and not being and 0:23:30.280 --> 0:23:32.840 I was black in Mexican or black and for the weekend, 0:23:37.800 --> 0:23:40.359 Oh she said Plexican. I've never heard that term that 0:23:40.680 --> 0:23:46.040 had put it in a drink champ. So wait a minute, 0:23:46.080 --> 0:23:49.399 wait a minute, hold on home, because I before we 0:23:49.480 --> 0:23:51.239 get into the woman far because we have to get 0:23:51.280 --> 0:23:53.760 into the world park, right, But I just want to 0:23:54.240 --> 0:23:56.440 people you to describe how hard it is for a 0:23:56.560 --> 0:23:59.520 designer this period yeah, first, and then I want to 0:23:59.560 --> 0:24:02.040 get it designed to end in being a woman. So 0:24:02.560 --> 0:24:05.760 just okay, because this is us from the outside looking 0:24:05.800 --> 0:24:12.560 at this is early before hip hop fashion is you 0:24:12.640 --> 0:24:15.200 got to realize if we see it on video music box, 0:24:15.359 --> 0:24:18.479 we think it's it Like, it doesn't matter if it's 0:24:18.520 --> 0:24:22.159 a headband, if it's if it's if it's a pouch. 0:24:22.840 --> 0:24:25.960 If we see it on video music box, we're saying, 0:24:26.240 --> 0:24:32.479 these people made it. So starting your brand, first of all, 0:24:32.640 --> 0:24:35.400 we had the store. The store was to keep people fresh. 0:24:35.480 --> 0:24:40.680 Then you started styling. How much courage did it take 0:24:40.800 --> 0:24:44.000 to say, you know what, I don't want to be 0:24:44.680 --> 0:24:47.920 I don't want to be competing because I think you 0:24:47.960 --> 0:24:53.880 said you had a fashion show and Jimmy Jazz you invited. 0:24:54.240 --> 0:24:57.840 I don't. They invited. But that's a lot of courage. 0:24:58.560 --> 0:25:00.680 So how do you develop that hervish to say, you 0:25:00.760 --> 0:25:03.960 know what I'm going from? Stalin took this is this 0:25:04.119 --> 0:25:07.080 is me and I want to invite these people. So 0:25:07.200 --> 0:25:13.159 I think that honestly, I had a as I was 0:25:13.320 --> 0:25:16.280 naive to fear, and I think my parents and I 0:25:16.359 --> 0:25:18.480 now had a good support system. When I say that, 0:25:18.640 --> 0:25:20.920 I mean I grew up my father was in the 0:25:21.040 --> 0:25:24.240 music industry. So my father I grew up as a 0:25:24.359 --> 0:25:27.040 jazz baby. He managed a lot of jazz grades, like 0:25:27.160 --> 0:25:30.200 we called Tyner Gary Bart's, and then by the time 0:25:30.280 --> 0:25:34.400 I was a teenager, he started managing d Train, Jazz 0:25:34.560 --> 0:25:37.560 jay Z, all these people my pops was working with. 0:25:38.320 --> 0:25:42.040 So I grew up watching him literally danced to his 0:25:42.119 --> 0:25:44.160 own beat, Like, Okay, I think what you just said 0:25:44.200 --> 0:25:46.560 just went over my head. Did you say jazz jazz 0:25:46.760 --> 0:25:51.920 z like jazz? Oh do my jazz music? Okay, alright, cool? Yeah, 0:25:52.320 --> 0:25:57.880 he just so my pops. Right, we were in Brooklyn 0:25:58.440 --> 0:26:00.960 and I used to hanging Marcy and I heard about 0:26:01.000 --> 0:26:04.560 these kids that could wrap their ass off and and 0:26:04.880 --> 0:26:08.920 um yeah, I gave my father his demo and then 0:26:09.000 --> 0:26:13.000 they started and we were all cool, you know, because 0:26:13.040 --> 0:26:15.880 you also got jay z and so walk away. That's 0:26:15.920 --> 0:26:17.639 how that all happened, you know what I mean. It 0:26:17.760 --> 0:26:21.080 was just like a family affair. And then um guru 0:26:23.240 --> 0:26:27.560 Ye moved in and was my next door neighbor right 0:26:27.600 --> 0:26:32.040 there when he first came to Brooklyn from huh, And 0:26:32.160 --> 0:26:34.879 so that's how we got cool premier all of us, 0:26:35.040 --> 0:26:38.240 you know. Yeah, he was Keith Okay, he was Keith 0:26:40.000 --> 0:26:44.520 and yeah and so and then context wise, Keith lived, 0:26:45.040 --> 0:26:47.600