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Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sitting right now down with one of the

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Speaker 1: most prolific musicians out there. A legend in the hip

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Speaker 1: hop and music community, rapper E forty is an icon

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Speaker 1: to say the least, but he's also a businessman. He's

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Speaker 1: also a chef as well, merging his passion for culinary

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Speaker 1: arts with his entrepreneurial spirit. He's got a new album

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Speaker 1: out today called Rule of Thumb Rule one. I assume

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Speaker 1: there's going to be a Rule two and three as well.

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Speaker 1: He's also released a new cookbook called Goon with the Spoon,

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Speaker 1: a collaboration with Snoop Dogg, which features some of his

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Speaker 1: favorite recipes. Please to Say It joins me now here

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Speaker 1: in studio two.

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Speaker 2: Great to have you here. Great to have you buddy.

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Speaker 2: Think just say that.

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Speaker 1: You're prolific would be an understatement. I mean we're talking,

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Speaker 1: what now twenty seven solo studio albums, and that doesn't

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Speaker 1: count all the collaborations and group projects you've done.

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Speaker 2: Why are you still rapping?

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Speaker 3: I liked that I have a passion for rapping, man,

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Speaker 3: you know this is it. I played the drums from

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Speaker 3: fourth grade all the way to twelfth and that's before

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Speaker 3: they have pro towos and you know, those type of

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Speaker 3: things that can get a song out there right away.

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Speaker 3: But I just always had a passion for rapp and

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Speaker 3: every since I heard the sugar Hill Gang in nineteen

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Speaker 3: seventy nine.

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Speaker 1: You also had a passion for cooking. You have a

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Speaker 1: cookbook Goon with a Spoon, absolutely, and you maybe kind

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Speaker 1: of give us some insight into why you actually chose

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Speaker 1: to write a cookbook.

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Speaker 3: Well, I started off on ig cooking with the power

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Speaker 3: pressure cooker. I had a song we mentioned me and

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Speaker 3: my cousin be Legit, he had mentioned I'm a goon

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Speaker 3: with a spoon.

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Speaker 1: A beast with the mouthpiece exactly all right, you know.

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Speaker 3: So you know like a basketball player or a football player,

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Speaker 3: they might say, oh he's a dog. That mean he's

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Speaker 3: a dog, like he's a beastie or whatever. You know,

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Speaker 3: it's a good thing. It turns something that sound bad

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Speaker 3: and something good. So I'm the goon with a spoon.

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Speaker 3: I'm a goon with.

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Speaker 2: A spoon, you know what I'm saying. So anyway, I started.

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Speaker 3: I had a logo made with a vector that for

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Speaker 3: the goon with spoon logo, and I had it put

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Speaker 3: on all my every time I would post some on

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Speaker 3: ig like my.

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Speaker 2: Food, whether it's short ribs, whether I'm.

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Speaker 3: Making gumbo, whether I'm making ox tails, whether I'm making

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Speaker 3: meat load or whatever I'm doing.

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Speaker 2: Yes and me, it just started getting a lot of attention.

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Speaker 2: And uh and here I am co packing. Now I

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Speaker 2: co pack.

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Speaker 3: What I mean by co packing is I have ice

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Speaker 3: cream going with the Spowling ice cream, and like Safeways Walmarts,

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Speaker 3: I have sausages and costcos. You understand burritos, and you

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Speaker 3: know Sky's the limit and the book Snoop Dogg. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: present the book because he had already had a book

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Speaker 3: out right, and so he was like, hey, earl, let

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Speaker 3: me put your book out.

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Speaker 2: But you know what I mean.

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Speaker 1: You mentioned some of the food products that you have,

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Speaker 1: the sausages, the ice creams. How did that go from

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Speaker 1: idea to actually getting it onto the shelves of the

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Speaker 1: Safeway and a Walmart? Was that a laborious process?

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Speaker 2: Well, it's it's I do my due diligence.

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Speaker 3: Once you're in a certain space, it's you just you

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Speaker 3: just find people that can do that can get it

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Speaker 3: done for you. Own all my stuff one hundred percent.

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Speaker 2: I sell food.

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Speaker 1: When you say one hundred percent. You're not going out

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Speaker 1: looking for back financial backround.

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Speaker 3: None at all, Okay, none at all, one percent black owned.

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Speaker 3: Also have I'll go by name, my real name, Earl Stevens.

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Speaker 3: I have wine up under Earl Stevens.

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Speaker 2: You can find.

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Speaker 3: It in many stores, your local stores. The costcos, the

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Speaker 3: bev mods, the total wines and all that.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so I have that, and I have the Spirits

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Speaker 3: Air quart Enta Tequila. I have Kuyper Belt Bourbon. I

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Speaker 3: have tykwon Kniac all up under my umbrella.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So I'm in that food and beverage space.

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Speaker 1: Is that primarily where you're putting most of your money

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Speaker 1: in food and beverage or are you looking sort of

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Speaker 1: outside that realm as well?

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Speaker 3: Well, I'm comfortable in this space, and you know, music

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Speaker 3: is really my first love, you know what I mean. Also,

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Speaker 3: I'm in like fifty to sixty startup companies, one of

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Speaker 3: them being SpaceX and Clubhouse, and you know, I do

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Speaker 3: it from I get at them from the beginning.

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Speaker 2: And you know, well, I.

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Speaker 1: Want to talk a little bit about that too, because

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Speaker 1: a lot of people don't know just how prolific you've

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Speaker 1: been in that space as well. But that hasn't always

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Speaker 1: been a part of your career, relatively new, at least considering.

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Speaker 3: How long that you're twenty sixteen, I've been doing.

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Speaker 1: What was the pivot? Well, why did you make that pivot?

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Speaker 1: What was a revelation?

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Speaker 2: Well, I have a friend by the name of Chameleionaire.

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Speaker 2: He was already in this space. He's a rapper too,

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Speaker 2: and he pivoted into.

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Speaker 3: That's how he started coming how it came absolutely a

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Speaker 3: good friend of mine, really smart, and he got me

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Speaker 3: into it, and I just I follow his lead. He's

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Speaker 3: a good, good guy and it's very smart.

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Speaker 2: Is that was?

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Speaker 1: That was a decision though, to start sort of pursuing

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Speaker 1: some of those opportunities. Was that about diversification beyond just

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Speaker 1: music and whatever sort of food ventures you had to?

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Speaker 3: I think it's a smart business tool because you know,

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Speaker 3: you can tomorrow, I can wake up and one of

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Speaker 3: the business side of those fifty some businesses that I

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Speaker 3: invest in, they might get acquired. IPO might wake up

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Speaker 3: with a big bag of money. It happened overnight, It

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Speaker 3: happened real quick.

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Speaker 1: Well that's venture capital.

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Speaker 2: There you go.

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Speaker 1: It's like a dice game, and now twenty things to

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Speaker 1: go bust and one one ends up. Well, yep, but

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Speaker 1: how do you make a decision as to what to

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Speaker 1: go after? I hear space ACX obvious say, that's kind

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Speaker 1: of the golden goose for a lot of people. But

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Speaker 1: how are you making those decisions?

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Speaker 3: Well, we try to make, you know, we try to

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Speaker 3: find out like those who have already been in that space.

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Speaker 3: We try to, you know, get in those companies where

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Speaker 3: people are seasoned already that has done this before, and

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Speaker 3: we want the evaluation to be under fifty million most

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Speaker 3: of the time.

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Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. So you're basically Angel's status. Yeah, absolutely,

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Speaker 2: as there you go.

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Speaker 3: I'm also an investor in Republic too, you know what

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Speaker 3: I'm saying.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And I'm curious too. I mean, for all the

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Speaker 1: successes that you've had, you've had some businesses that didn't

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Speaker 1: necessarily turn out into a big thing. I was looking

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Speaker 1: back and I almost forgot about forty Water, which was

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Speaker 1: kind of like vitamin drink, energy drink, if you will,

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Speaker 1: kind of before it really got popular.

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Speaker 2: What happened there?

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Speaker 1: Why did that that not actually gain more traction?

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Speaker 3: Well, that right there, I didn't have control over that.

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Speaker 3: That was a guy brought that to my attention and

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Speaker 3: he wanted to do it. And that's when I really

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Speaker 3: knew that, Hey man, I know I can do this because.

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Speaker 2: You know I'm a very smart man.

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Speaker 3: But it was two around two thousand, two thousand and eight,

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Speaker 3: the recession kicked in. I owned a Fat Burger with

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Speaker 3: the Lake Chester mcglockt in out there in northern California.

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Speaker 3: There was only two of them. One was in southern

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Speaker 3: thunder Valley Casino. Another one we had in Pleasant Hill.

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Speaker 3: I didn't own the one in thunder Valley Casino, but

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Speaker 3: the only one in Pleasant Hill, I gotcha, and I was.

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Speaker 2: Co ownered with that. With with Chester you mentioned fat Burger.

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Speaker 1: I was also going through your portfolio and you're an

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Speaker 1: owner of a Filipino restaurant.

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Speaker 2: Did I get that right? Yeah, you're I'm co owner

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Speaker 2: of that too. That's okay.

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Speaker 3: So that's the it's called the Lumpia Company. My man,

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Speaker 3: Alex Wrotto. I've always had a passion for Filipino food.

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Speaker 1: And that space out in Valejo where you're from.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So in Valeo we have many Filipinos. I grew

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Speaker 3: up playing baseball with them everything. So the Aunties after baseball,

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Speaker 3: you know, they'll make glumpia and it was just something

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Speaker 3: that I just we just loved and uh it's one

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Speaker 3: of my favorite dishes.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and uh, well, how do you take that though

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Speaker 1: from because it's one restaurant.

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Speaker 2: Now right now, right, so you have the ambitions truck too.

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Speaker 1: Okay, but you have ambitions to turn this into a chain.

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Speaker 3: I want to turn this into like how do you

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Speaker 3: make Donalds or you know, or you know, Taco Bell

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Speaker 3: or whatever, you know, a change store. Okay, So we're

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Speaker 3: just gonna take baby steps, you know, and then we'll

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Speaker 3: start bringing in some investors and whoever, you know what

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Speaker 3: I mean. Okay, we start franchising that thing very very soon.

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Speaker 3: I think it's going to happen.

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Speaker 2: So what's next.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you already all have a lot on your

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Speaker 1: plate beyond this. I assume that you still have another

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Speaker 1: chapter a head.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 3: Well, music is my passion. Music is what I love

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Speaker 3: to do. That's my baby right there, because that's what

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Speaker 3: make everything spind you know what I mean.

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Speaker 1: Because and the economics of that are working for you,

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Speaker 1: I mean, changed a lot since nineteen ninety three, very lucrative.

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Speaker 2: Yeah for me.

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Speaker 1: All right, Well, it's a pleasure to talk to you.

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Speaker 1: You forty are also known as Earl Stevens, rapper, entrepreneur,

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Speaker 1: cookbook author, and I'm probably can add a few other

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Speaker 1: things to that in due time