Speaker 1: All right, welcome back to Car Stories.
Speaker 2: With Sun King and Amelia Hartford, and.
Speaker 1: Today we are talking with His name is Hurt.
Speaker 2: I asked about his last name. He said, I go
Speaker 2: by just Hurt.
Speaker 1: He's a good friend of ours and we get to
Speaker 1: talk about his history, his love for drifting, and his
Speaker 1: association with Hunigan and all things FC.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and recently being a host on the new Hot
Speaker 2: Wheels NBC show. It's been so cool to see his
Speaker 2: career flourish, just someone who's really passionate about cars in
Speaker 2: the motorsports world, and to see where he is today.
Speaker 2: I think it's a really cool and inspiring story that
Speaker 2: people are about to hear.
Speaker 3: So without further ado, the man, the myth, the legend, Hurt,
Speaker 3: I'm so happy to see your career and everything.
Speaker 2: You're just killing it. Dad.
Speaker 4: I could say the exact same about you. It's crazy
Speaker 4: how far we've come, Yeah, in this space, just basically
Speaker 4: doing what we love, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're just a couple of kids who liked tinkering
Speaker 2: and driving cars.
Speaker 4: Yeah, drifting is a is a very interesting thing because
Speaker 4: when I started doing this in two thousand and seven
Speaker 4: or whatever, I mean, there was no Instagram, yeah, you
Speaker 4: might have still been using MySpace. Like social media wasn't
Speaker 4: even Facebook at the very least Facebook. But social media
Speaker 4: wasn't even on the scope. You know, we were doing
Speaker 4: things because we love them. I never imagined what the
Speaker 4: space would turn into with the amount of reach you
Speaker 4: can gain from just doing what you love and any
Speaker 4: any aspect, not just drifting. You could be a cook,
Speaker 4: you could you could be a car detailer or whatever.
Speaker 4: There's like the ability to make a career because of
Speaker 4: the tools like social media is actually insane.
Speaker 2: And also be able to share that like freedom of
Speaker 2: expression too.
Speaker 5: Yeah, everyone has a voice. Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 1: So you said you started in two thousand and seven.
Speaker 1: Where'd you start in Florida? You're from Florida?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so, born and raised Orlando, Florida. I mean I
Speaker 4: started immediately once I got my first car when I
Speaker 4: was sixteen. It was a two thousand and four Honda Accord.
Speaker 4: Shout out to my mom. She she got it for
Speaker 4: me as a as a gift, still in high school.
Speaker 5: And I immediately ruined that car.
Speaker 2: Trying to drift the front wheel drive.
Speaker 4: Well, just you know, I went to home depot, got
Speaker 4: some dryer ducting, made an intake, you know, had no
Speaker 4: idea about how maths work or anything like that, so
Speaker 4: the idle air was all messed up and just you know,
Speaker 4: fart can all the good stuff, you know.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but it just like a crappy exhaust.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well it's a four cylinder automatic Honda Accord with
Speaker 4: an exhaust, so it just sounds like it's farting, you know,
Speaker 4: everywhere you go.
Speaker 1: But you can't drift that car because so you weren't
Speaker 1: drifting down.
Speaker 4: I didn't even drifting wasn't even on the scope. Drifting
Speaker 4: is an interesting thing because like, obviously I had seen
Speaker 4: Initial d Obviously I'd played like Need for Speed Underground too,
Speaker 4: and I loved drifting in those games, but it never
Speaker 4: occurred to me that that was something you can do
Speaker 4: in real life, you know. So it's funny how it
Speaker 4: all came together, because because I loved playing those games,
Speaker 4: but it wasn't like, oh, I'm going to do this
Speaker 4: in real life.
Speaker 5: That wasn't in my in my thought process. I just
Speaker 5: loved playing the game.
Speaker 2: You know, what was your first experience seeing drifting then,
Speaker 2: because that had to have been kind of like a
Speaker 2: very memorable moment.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I mean, I can tell you my my
Speaker 4: my true experience.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 4: So I had that Civic hatchback, I got rear ended,
Speaker 4: I got the insurance insurance check. And the day that
Speaker 4: I got the insurance check, my friend was taking me
Speaker 4: home from work and there's a used car dealership that
Speaker 4: was also a rotary shop and they had a white
Speaker 4: FCR seven parked out front for sale hot and so
Speaker 4: I was like, I'm that's the car, you know. So
Speaker 4: I had the insurance check, cashed it, went and bought that.
Speaker 2: You what that was at the time, right, it's an
Speaker 2: initial Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah, So that's that's another interesting thing, right is is
Speaker 4: I watched you know, initial D I played games, but again,
Speaker 4: I just didn't really correlate real life with you know,
Speaker 4: these shows and these things, right. I mean when I
Speaker 4: watched Fast and the Furious one, there was an FDR seven,
Speaker 4: but I didn't put it together that that was an
Speaker 4: FDR seven, Like that was right, you know, it was
Speaker 4: just such a like it was so separated, so so
Speaker 4: so detached right for me, and it started to become
Speaker 4: more real. I I get this R seven and I
Speaker 4: go to an R seven meet in Florida, in Florida. Yeah,
Speaker 4: So this is all Orlando, Florida. I go to a
Speaker 4: Dino day. I meet a new friend, Chris. He has
Speaker 4: an R seven. I don't know car stuff. You go
Speaker 4: to card meets, you talk to people, you make friends.
Speaker 4: It's the beautiful thing about this culture that we're we're in.
Speaker 4: And he invites me to their secret spot.
Speaker 2: You know, yeah, it's it's yeah.
Speaker 4: He invites me to secret spot where him and his
Speaker 4: friends go to drift. And it was it was a
Speaker 4: construction site for like a Pepsi building or something like that,
Speaker 4: and it was a really sandy lot on top of concrete,
Speaker 4: like so it's really easy to slide, you know, good
Speaker 4: on tires. You can go all day secluded. And so
Speaker 4: they take me to this spot. They set a cone
Speaker 4: up and they're like, you need to be able to
Speaker 4: do donuts around this if you want to drive with us.
Speaker 2: If you want to drive with us, you got to
Speaker 2: learn how to do the basis. No, I love it.
Speaker 2: That's like the first thing you got to learn.
Speaker 5: This is how I remember it.
Speaker 4: There could be you know, variances and things like that,
Speaker 4: but this is how I remember this story. And it
Speaker 4: just like it gives me chills every time I think
Speaker 4: about it because like there's a very defining moment in
Speaker 4: my life, honestly. So, you know, I do the donuts
Speaker 4: and then time goes on and these guys just take.
Speaker 5: Me under their wing and teach me everything.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: They taught me how to clutch kick on Rocket Boulevard,
Speaker 4: which was another spot that we used to go to,
Speaker 4: which was just a perfect sweeper and you could just
Speaker 4: run it back and forth.
Speaker 1: Can you describe what a clutch kick is for the listeners.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So they taught me how to clutch kick. And
Speaker 4: a clutch kick is where is a way to initiate
Speaker 4: and drifting. So as you're running towards the apex, you
Speaker 4: push the clutch in, rev it up, and then pop
Speaker 4: the clutch and so it's just like a quick clutch
Speaker 4: kick and that'll get the car sideways and initiate your drift.
Speaker 4: So they taught me how to do that. They taught
Speaker 4: me how to do a lot of things, and they
Speaker 4: made drifting real for me. You know, they helped me
Speaker 4: understand like, oh, it's not just in video games, this
Speaker 4: is actually real life. And then that got me in
Speaker 4: closer with and Jukie racing as well.
Speaker 5: They've built drift cards. They've competed in Formula.
Speaker 2: D for a long time, like an O company.
Speaker 5: They're super O G Yeah.
Speaker 4: And that's when I got to see professional drifting. So
Speaker 4: going to like NOBE Nationals and seeing you know, people
Speaker 4: like Gyamanaka and Justin Pollock, like completely different spectrums of
Speaker 4: drift culture, but you know, all in the same place
Speaker 4: on the highest level at the time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, You're You're there really at like the peak of
Speaker 2: drifting motorsports, really when it was coming together in the US, right.
Speaker 4: I feel like I feel like I was a couple
Speaker 4: of years off, but I was there.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Sure, Like I wasn't there for D one versus USA,
Speaker 4: which was like three oh four and that stuff. But
Speaker 4: I feel like I definitely got to witness the early
Speaker 4: days of American professional drifting, and that's why I like,
Speaker 4: I mean, you can you can clearly see that my
Speaker 4: cars have inspiration from Japanese style drifting, and they do.
Speaker 5: But I still feel very.
Speaker 4: Much a product of American drifting from you know, obviously
Speaker 4: out of V eight and my R seven, you know,
Speaker 4: the R seven that I talked about, learned how to
Speaker 4: drift in all that stuff. I ended up smashing that
Speaker 4: car into pieces and you know, time goes on on.
Speaker 4: I did a lot in life, you know, like I
Speaker 4: lost my license for a little bit.
Speaker 2: I had to really oh yeah, just just.
Speaker 5: Doing stupid stuff. I don't recommend anyone.
Speaker 2: Losing their license and different time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, it wasn't even for street drifting. It
Speaker 4: was just like stupid speeding tickets here and there, like
Speaker 4: speed traps and points. There's a point system in Florida
Speaker 4: and you get X amount of points, they just take
Speaker 4: your lives.
Speaker 2: I had that in Indiana. I got pretty close.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I lost my license for a couple months,
Speaker 4: and that was probably one of the hardest couple of
Speaker 4: months that you know, I ever had. And and that's
Speaker 4: when I got in with in JUGI Racing. They weren't hiring.
Speaker 4: I was like, I'm going to come and sweep some
Speaker 4: floors and swept floors, worked my way into sales and
Speaker 4: ended up being a big part of their sales force
Speaker 4: as they reinvent themselves after the recession back then. And
Speaker 4: and then I got my RX seven from my friend Zach.
Speaker 4: So my friend Zach had this Vight R seven look
Speaker 4: bone stock, massive Vight with nitrous.
Speaker 2: You bought it with the V eight.
Speaker 4: So I bought it with a blown up y okay, yeah,
Speaker 4: So he had that car forever and I always joked
Speaker 4: about buying it. He blew it up, bought a z
Speaker 4: E six, parked it under a tree. I had a
Speaker 4: Crown Vic. I just smashed the diff in it doing
Speaker 4: and I posted it up for sale and he's like,
Speaker 4: I want that car, and I was like, well, I
Speaker 4: want R seven and the Crown Vic was really nice.
Speaker 2: I just had a did you guys do a trade
Speaker 2: out right?
Speaker 5: We did.
Speaker 2: I don't know what the prices were back then, but
Speaker 2: today that wouldn't make sense.
Speaker 4: Well, no one wanted RX sevens. There's a there's a
Speaker 4: time where RX sevens you could. No one really didn't
Speaker 4: mess with the rotaries a lot. I mean, obviously people
Speaker 4: mess with the rotaries, but the common car guy didn't
Speaker 4: want to deal with the rotary engine. So RX sevens
Speaker 4: just weren't sought after vehicle.
Speaker 2: It's interesting because today like they're very I feel like
Speaker 2: sought after.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, this was the FC though it was at
Speaker 1: the FT.
Speaker 5: Hey C is way better than that loud.
Speaker 1: The FC is still in the affordable like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you could buy a nice FC bill for a decent price,
Speaker 1: whereas f d's are like minimum forty grand for a
Speaker 1: nice car. So that's why that R seven you bought,
Speaker 1: the FC was swapped with the VA to get more horsepower.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so he was a drag racer. He was a
Speaker 5: big VA guy.
Speaker 4: So he swapped that car and ended up blowing it up,
Speaker 4: parking it under a tree. We ended up doing the trade,
Speaker 4: and then I went to l k Q just the
Speaker 4: junkyard bought a five point three Leader l S, which
Speaker 4: is an iron block version of the five to seven
Speaker 4: LS l S one.
Speaker 2: I never knew that LS and that was a five
Speaker 2: to three.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, so the first one. Yeah, the Torque Stallion
Speaker 4: my f C R seven.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: The name, yeah, that's just a silly name. We came
Speaker 4: up with because cars just they're better with names, and
Speaker 4: I don't know, it just makes it fun.
Speaker 1: Tor Stallion Stallion, Yeah, where'd that?
Speaker 4: Because I would do ridiculous burnouts and the back would
Speaker 4: just shake, So we just called it the tourk style.
Speaker 2: Nic Song is also really good at naming cars.
Speaker 4: I thought you were going to say he's really good
Speaker 4: at working, but to see it too too.
Speaker 5: Once the cameras awful, I get you know, get a show.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was a fun project and the V eight
Speaker 4: was great, and a lot of people hated it. You know,
Speaker 4: I'm a product of American drifting right because I put
Speaker 4: a V eight in a Japanese car. But I also
Speaker 4: had b in sports big wing slammed on vskfs, so
Speaker 4: very j style externally, but it had a cammed out
Speaker 4: V eight on the inside.
Speaker 2: I still want to own those wheels, even though I
Speaker 2: know they're like people say they're played out. I love
Speaker 2: those wheels so much. I want to set for my
Speaker 2: two forty.
Speaker 5: Whoever says they played out has no idea.
Speaker 2: What it?
Speaker 5: What is this?
Speaker 1: What do you mean by American drifting?
Speaker 4: American drifting is just very different from Japanese drifting, the
Speaker 4: style of the types of motors they used, the just
Speaker 4: just the overall aspect, I mean, and things are changing now,
Speaker 4: but back then it was very Japanese drifting. Style is paramount,
Speaker 4: and obviously it's subjective. You know, someone might think this
Speaker 4: is cooler than that or whatever, but style is subjective.
Speaker 4: Turbo motors four cylinder, six cylinder, you know, SRS two
Speaker 4: j's one J is all that's what Japanese drifting was
Speaker 4: and low cars, bright wheels or big wheels, and then
Speaker 4: American drifting was. It was a mix to begin with,
Speaker 4: but it turned into V eight VA VI eight and
Speaker 4: styling function function over form, not that form doesn't function.
Speaker 4: That's another conversation, and again it's subjective, but people really
Speaker 4: thought externally Japanese cars looked way better than the American
Speaker 4: drift cars. So there was just always a battle of
Speaker 4: Japan is better, America is better. And so me coming
Speaker 4: from watching Nope Nationals and the early days of Formula drift,
Speaker 4: seeing Tanner Faust bomb the Hill of Roade, Atlanta and
Speaker 4: a si On TC with a Nascar VI eight and
Speaker 4: that vight is just punching you in the chest from
Speaker 4: hundreds of feet away, like that is American drifting, you know.
Speaker 5: And so I loved Vates.
Speaker 4: I love the idea of vights, I love the sound
Speaker 4: of Vates, and so I was very happy to take
Speaker 4: a Vight and put it in Marx seven. And I
Speaker 4: didn't know that I was causing a stir when I
Speaker 4: did it, you know, because it was just normal for me.
Speaker 4: But as I got deeper and learned more about the
Speaker 4: culture and the Internet started to.
Speaker 2: Go sales before you can get real internet, right.
Speaker 4: And the Internet started to grow. Then it was like, oh,
Speaker 4: people don't like this, and then I just fed into it.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm just like, well, this is you know,
Speaker 4: this is my car. I'm going to do what I
Speaker 4: want to do with my car, and I think everyone
Speaker 4: should kind of.
Speaker 5: Live by that. So so I just trolled the trolls
Speaker 5: and uh, that was a good time.
Speaker 2: So if I can ask, because I'm so curious about
Speaker 2: the progression of your career and how you are where
Speaker 2: you are today, obviously the next thing to talk about
Speaker 2: would be your involvement with Hoonigan, Right, So how did
Speaker 2: you go from I guess how did I'm sure people
Speaker 2: are curious on how you got that opportunity and you
Speaker 2: were a big personality with the Houdigen brand. When I
Speaker 2: looked at Hoonigan, you know, I thought I thought hurt.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I hear that a lot and I
Speaker 4: appreciate that obviously, the late great.
Speaker 2: Kim Block, right, may he rest in peace.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's forever a legend and he did he did
Speaker 4: a lot for Honigan as a brand. It just depends
Speaker 4: on when you started watching hoon again.
Speaker 2: Right, the day to day blogs versus Jim Conna Right series.
Speaker 4: So basically I was friends with Drift Alliance, so Von
Speaker 4: Getting Junior, Ryan Turk, Tony Angelo, Chris Forsburg, that whole
Speaker 4: group of East Coast English Town drifters and I used
Speaker 4: to go up there a lot, East Coast Bash, shout
Speaker 4: out club loose. So the phase that I told you
Speaker 4: about when I lost my license, I picked up a
Speaker 4: camera and started filming drifting because I still wanted to
Speaker 4: be involved in the community even though I didn't have
Speaker 4: a car or anything anymore. Had to take a break
Speaker 4: from that to get, you know, get myself together. But
Speaker 4: so I picked up a camera and I started making
Speaker 4: videos so i'd film them on you know, bash days,
Speaker 4: film the drifting, put some music to it and make
Speaker 4: it fun.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: I wish I believed in blogging a lot sooner, because
Speaker 4: I didn't believe in it in the early days.
Speaker 5: And that's something I'm like, man, imagine.
Speaker 4: But because of you know, the videos I used to
Speaker 4: make with my friends, basically the stars a ligne to
Speaker 4: where you know, I met Brian Scotto, the co founder
Speaker 4: of Honigan Industries. He also was one of the brilliant
Speaker 4: minds behind Zero to sixty magazine and has directed a
Speaker 4: majority of the Gym Conn.
Speaker 2: Of films and best friends with Ken.
Speaker 4: And yeah, amazing friends with Kim Block. He's just a
Speaker 4: creative juggernaut. You know, he has a vision and he
Speaker 4: has a way of laying out those visions like like
Speaker 4: I've never seen before. So Brian Scotto, I met him
Speaker 4: at Chris Forstburg's party after he won the championship. I
Speaker 4: don't remember meeting him that night. I don't know if
Speaker 4: we remember meeting each other that night, but there's a
Speaker 4: photo of us eating tacos, really like a really bad
Speaker 4: photo of us eating tacos at this party, and I
Speaker 4: think we became Facebook friends because of that, right, And
Speaker 4: you know, time goes on, the relationship grows. I'm doing
Speaker 4: my thing in Mark seven. I'm doing driveway burnouts at
Speaker 4: my house and just you know, just having fun in
Speaker 4: my car, and Hoonigan is starting to become a thing.
Speaker 5: So funny story. I'm a back up a little bit.
Speaker 4: My name's Hertretch Hoonigan is Hoonigan eight letters. Hoonigan's launch
Speaker 4: date it was November first, that's my birthday. Just weird, Yeah,
Speaker 4: just weird, you know, weird energy that just comes together.
Speaker 4: And we had a great time that year the launch party,
Speaker 4: and I think I just really built a good relationship
Speaker 4: with those guys on top of what I do on
Speaker 4: the media side, right because I liked my videos to
Speaker 4: be different from everyone else at the time, because everything
Speaker 4: felt the same, so I wanted to bring some rawness
Speaker 4: to it. And obviously Hoonigan was a pretty raw brand,
Speaker 4: so they had a role that needed to be filled.
Speaker 4: And thankfully I was just in the right place and
Speaker 4: the right time, doing the right stuff. And after that
Speaker 4: Seema party, Ken Raise grc his car caught on fire.
Speaker 4: They got video of it all, and then he hit
Speaker 4: me up and he's like, hey, you want to edit
Speaker 4: this video?
Speaker 5: And was I qualified to edit a video of that caliber?
Speaker 1: No, I don't know.
Speaker 2: If a lot of people know that you used to
Speaker 2: edit a lot of the videos.
Speaker 5: Yeah, a lot of people don't know that I was
Speaker 5: camera and edit.
Speaker 2: And personality and helped with creative.
Speaker 5: I mean there's people.
Speaker 4: I think there's people that work there now that don't
Speaker 4: even know that I have that I did that, you know.
Speaker 2: Not to take away from everyone else who's there on
Speaker 2: the team.
Speaker 3: Too.
Speaker 1: No, not at all.
Speaker 4: Well, but I mean, you know, I just had a
Speaker 4: I just had a different vision of voice and rawness.
Speaker 4: And obviously Brian helped fine tune that as well.
Speaker 2: It's all collaborative.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so he hit me up to edit that video.
Speaker 4: I said, oh, no problem, and I'm in Florida. There
Speaker 4: in California, Brian is a night owl. So it's three
Speaker 4: am for me and I'm just like falling asleep editing
Speaker 4: this video. And you know that goes out. That's cool.
Speaker 4: I got to edit a video for kim Blocker.
Speaker 2: Would you edit on?
Speaker 5: It was a really old.
Speaker 2: MacBook like Final Cut or something.
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure Final Yeah, might have been pirated with them.
Speaker 4: But with that, I showed him my work ethic, what
Speaker 4: I can do.
Speaker 2: When yeah, well you're up at three am editing, just.
Speaker 5: Grinding it out.
Speaker 4: That's That's Brian's dream is editors that'll stay up til
Speaker 4: three am.
Speaker 5: Getting stuff done.
Speaker 2: I feel like that.
Speaker 5: And so you fast forward a little bit.
Speaker 4: Brian messages me on Facebook and he's like, hey, you
Speaker 4: want to move to California, And I said, hey, you
Speaker 4: want to give me a job? There There was a
Speaker 4: long period of silence in between that where I was like, oh,
Speaker 4: I guess I didn't actually get this job. And then
Speaker 4: and then it you know, they flew me out, interviewed,
Speaker 4: and then it became real. So I packed my car
Speaker 4: with everything that I could fit in it, and if
Speaker 4: it didn't fit in there, I didn't bring it.
Speaker 2: We have such similar stories of like I always you
Speaker 2: said the saying of like they took me under the wing,
Speaker 2: and I say the same thing about the car community.
Speaker 2: I packed my two forty SX with everything, my V
Speaker 2: eight Japanese car with thing I could fit in it,
Speaker 2: drove to California.
Speaker 4: Just to make it, just just to do something right.
Speaker 4: I was very comfortable in Florida. I didn't have to leave,
Speaker 4: but I just felt.
Speaker 2: Like there was more, like a calling almost.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it just felt like there was more and it
Speaker 4: would just be a shame to not go see if
Speaker 4: there was.
Speaker 1: What were you doing for work in Florida?
Speaker 4: So when I left to go to Houning and I
Speaker 4: was working at Juke Racing, you know, nine to five,
Speaker 4: come in answer phones, make sales, answer emails. And that
Speaker 4: all stemmed from me going in sweeping floors and like
Speaker 4: forcing my way into a job, you know, because I
Speaker 4: just wanted to be in the automotive industry. I loved
Speaker 4: cars so much. I used to valet park cars before
Speaker 4: that at the hard Rock Hotel and it was good money.
Speaker 4: But it just didn't feel the.
Speaker 2: Cars running the family at all, not at all.
Speaker 4: I'm the only automotive person in the family and that
Speaker 4: makes me excited.
Speaker 5: You know, none of my son's here. He's four. He
Speaker 5: loves cars and I'm not going to force him to
Speaker 5: do anything. You know.
Speaker 4: He chose hot Wheels and he takes it all in.
Speaker 4: So I'm excited to kind of nurture that and see
Speaker 4: what it becomes.
Speaker 2: I'm excited to see it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's it's really exciting. It's really exciting.
Speaker 2: And you just shot a show in the UK. Do
Speaker 2: you want to talk about that at all?
Speaker 5: Sure?
Speaker 4: So I just had the opportunity to shoot Hot was
Speaker 4: Ultimate Challenge. Retligwood top gare Us the Flores Lava was
Speaker 4: the host of the show and also a judge.
Speaker 5: I was a judge, and then Delala was also a judge.
Speaker 2: Son was also a guest of one of the episods.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he was a guest. He was a wonderful guest.
Speaker 4: It was very mean to religion it was great. Actually,
Speaker 4: just kidding, but I never dreamt of being on TV.
Speaker 2: I am and was so happy to see that you
Speaker 2: were one of the hosts of that show.
Speaker 5: I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: I feel like you are so deserving of this opportunity.
Speaker 2: I was just I saw you in the airports that
Speaker 2: were passing ways and I like had to stop you
Speaker 2: to say, dude, I'm so happy for you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I appreciate that. It still doesn't feel real, honestly,
Speaker 4: and it's like I never dreamt of being on TV,
Speaker 4: and then we started doing it. I was like, Wow,
Speaker 4: I didn't even know I dreamed of this, but now
Speaker 4: that I'm doing it, this is like a dream come true.
Speaker 4: And then like the cherry on top is that my mom,
Speaker 4: you know, gets to see me on TV.
Speaker 5: Like this is such a cool thing.
Speaker 4: Like not that I ever thought she thought I was
Speaker 4: a failure or anything like that, but I just feel
Speaker 4: like that is an accomplishment as a parent to see
Speaker 4: your child do something on a grand stage like that.
Speaker 5: So it just it felt really cool to be a
Speaker 5: part of it.
Speaker 4: That was an experience of a lifetime being in a
Speaker 4: production like that and working with people like rut Sung,
Speaker 4: Terry crews, Jay Leno, and like, we were just around
Speaker 4: legendary folks, So it was cool to get to feed
Speaker 4: off of their energy and just learn by being around
Speaker 4: you guys. I learned how to kind of just purely
Speaker 4: be yourself when you're on a stage like that.
Speaker 5: And this is what I just gathered from watching you
Speaker 5: guys do your thing.
Speaker 4: You didn't really change for any situation, right, I feel
Speaker 4: like you stayed very true to yourself and also making
Speaker 4: yourself vulnerable. So when Terry was on, I watched him
Speaker 4: be so happy and you know, speak to someone, and
Speaker 4: then the story kind of got a little deep, you know,
Speaker 4: sharing sharing stuff about her aunt and things like that,
Speaker 4: and like you could feel the emotion just kind of
Speaker 4: come out of him, and he made himself vulnerable and
Speaker 4: shared some stuff.
Speaker 5: And this is on camera and off camera, you know,
Speaker 5: and it's just like.
Speaker 2: Wow, isn't that wild? Because you watch TV as a
Speaker 2: viewer and you look at these people and you're like
Speaker 2: almost like they're you think they're putting on something or
Speaker 2: you think that they're behaving differently when they're they're just
Speaker 2: unapologetically being their self. They're being open, vulnerable, And I
Speaker 2: feel like the people who are most successful with the
Speaker 2: people who are just themselves.
Speaker 4: And that's what I feel like I gathered for that exactly,
Speaker 4: is you don't have to try to be anything but yourself.
Speaker 5: Just have a good time and if it works, it works.
Speaker 2: And same with kids who are listening like social media,
Speaker 2: whatever you're trying to do. I feel like if you
Speaker 2: just be yourself at the end of the day, that's
Speaker 2: you are enough. You are enough.
Speaker 4: Yeah, don't get caught up looking at social media accounts.
Speaker 4: Social media is kind of a joke.
Speaker 2: I know, it's high like real. Don't compare yourself and that.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's something I even struggled with at times, right,
Speaker 4: because you know, we all do. We worked hard to
Speaker 4: create content and build this stuff. And you have all
Speaker 4: of these peers and you see all these people doing
Speaker 4: all this crazy stuff, and it'll get in your head.
Speaker 6: You know, that's the thing, creating content, you know, right,
Speaker 6: and once as long as you remind yourself that you know,
Speaker 6: everyone is a person and everyone is going through stuff
Speaker 6: and doing stuff, it keeps you grounded.
Speaker 5: Don't do it for the gram, do it because you
Speaker 5: love it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what did you think you were going to be
Speaker 1: doing when you were a kid with their other aspirations.
Speaker 4: I I definitely loved computers, so I thought maybe I
Speaker 4: would get into computer programming. I also liked, you know, architecture,
Speaker 4: but I also just liked gaming too, so I didn't
Speaker 4: have a definitive, you know, of what I wanted to do.
Speaker 4: And then the moment that I started messing with cars,
Speaker 4: it was just game over.
Speaker 2: Did you go through I did for myself, which is
Speaker 2: why I ask about going to college or not. In
Speaker 2: my early twenties, I definitely had a lot of regret
Speaker 2: of maybe I'm making the wrong decision, and if there's
Speaker 2: a time to do, it's got to be now, because
Speaker 2: it's going to be years and I might regret this
Speaker 2: down the line. Did you go through that regret at all?
Speaker 2: Were you very much not right for me?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I felt really good about my decision because the only
Speaker 4: higher learning in the automotive space was being a mechanic,
Speaker 4: and I didn't.
Speaker 5: At least that's what I felt.
Speaker 2: I tried going to automotive school, and when I grasped
Speaker 2: that and realized, well, I guess my options are start
Speaker 2: my own shop. Really, but at the time I wasn't
Speaker 2: focused on storying amound stuff I was thinking of the
Speaker 2: job I would get and was working a dealership or
Speaker 2: turn wrenches somewhere, right.
Speaker 4: And I was okay working on cars, but I don't
Speaker 4: I wasn't convinced that that's what I wanted to do
Speaker 4: for the rest of my life.
Speaker 5: Either.
Speaker 4: I really enjoyed driving. I feel like once I started driving,
Speaker 4: and once I started drifting, I felt really and I
Speaker 4: mean like this brings in feelings of, you know, my
Speaker 4: dad passing and things like that. Nothing felt right until
Speaker 4: I started drifting, you know, And so driving cars, the
Speaker 4: feeling of driving cars, the freedom, the just everything goes away.
Speaker 5: It just did something to me that led me to this.
Speaker 4: Right, there was no other option but to chase making
Speaker 4: more opportunities for me to be inside of a car driving.
Speaker 4: And because of that, it made me feel good about
Speaker 4: my decision not to go to college. And I'm not
Speaker 4: saying you shouldn't go to college. I think there's definitely
Speaker 4: reasons to go to college. I think I definitely could
Speaker 4: have learned a lot more about business and things like.
Speaker 2: That sane, you know, But I do feel like school
Speaker 2: teaches you how to apply yourself. You don't always learn
Speaker 2: that necessarily in the real world.
Speaker 5: Either self discipline is very difficult.
Speaker 2: Song remind me, did you go to college? You did
Speaker 2: four years?
Speaker 5: Yeah, you get a PhD In being handsome or No.
Speaker 1: I was on my way to law school. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what I thought I was going to be doing.
Speaker 1: But this girl that I was dating in college, she
Speaker 1: it was like the first girl that I ever fell
Speaker 1: in love with, right, and I was actually going to
Speaker 1: be a lawyer for her, right because I was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: we know, we'll have a happy life together. And then
Speaker 1: she cheated on me. And I have to actually have
Speaker 1: to thank this this woman, because after I found that out,
Speaker 1: I became very selfish. I was like, I'm never going
Speaker 1: to live my life for somebody else. I mean to
Speaker 1: do exactly what I wanted to do. I pursued this
Speaker 1: stream of being an actor, and I think the combination
Speaker 1: of having my heart broken and then being angry and
Speaker 1: then feeling like I wasted my time with this person,
Speaker 1: I was gonna now worry about myself and pursue this stream.
Speaker 1: So it gave me tunnel vision. So I think back now,
Speaker 1: if I had stayed with this person, I'd probably be divorced.
Speaker 1: I have kids that you know, being neglected, and I'd
Speaker 1: be very unhappy, you know. And so sometimes these things
Speaker 1: happen in your life where in the moment you feel,
Speaker 1: you know, like the world is ending and it's such
Speaker 1: a horrible situation and you're angry at the world. But
Speaker 1: actually it changes the course of your life.
Speaker 3: They are these doors that open right with you, you know, yeah,
Speaker 3: your life today.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I feel like houting him and got lucky because
Speaker 4: right when I started working there, I had suffered my
Speaker 4: worst heartbreak. Oh really yeah, and then tunnel Vision happened
Speaker 4: and I just I had worked endlessly.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I feel that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sometimes you got to get your heart broke into
Speaker 1: I think, to rebuild that clarity, right, Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: totally agree with that. There's a question I want to
Speaker 1: ask you her. We didn't really talk about it, and
Speaker 1: when we're doing the Hot Wheels episode, because that was
Speaker 1: the first time I met you in the UK. And
Speaker 1: you know, what really impressed me about that show is
Speaker 1: like the diversity and the host. You know, you have
Speaker 1: Rutledge and the Lull and then you right, so I
Speaker 1: mean diversity within that show. And I think in Hollywood,
Speaker 1: you know, there is this like charge to you know,
Speaker 1: have like, you know, representation, but when you were coming
Speaker 1: up in the car community. Even currently, when I look
Speaker 1: at the landscape, there are very few African Americans, you know,
Speaker 1: that are actually part of the car community. Like you
Speaker 1: go to a car meet, if I see a handful,
Speaker 1: it's a lucky day, you know. I want to ask you, like,
Speaker 1: why do you think that is?
Speaker 4: I mean, it's a tough game. I think representation is
Speaker 4: a massive thing. And that's one thing I'm learning now
Speaker 4: that I'm in the position that I am right, is
Speaker 4: I get a lot of people who look like me
Speaker 4: come up to me and say thank you to me
Speaker 4: for doing what I've done so that they could see
Speaker 4: it happen and potentially go in that direction. It's really
Speaker 4: interesting to me because you know, twenty years ago when
Speaker 4: I was doing this, I mean, I'm from Florida. That
Speaker 4: should tell you what the automotive community might have looked like.
Speaker 4: I didn't let that the term me or stop me,
Speaker 4: but I understand how it could, you know, and so
Speaker 4: why I don't know why, but I think if I
Speaker 4: had to put anything on it, I'd say having more
Speaker 4: representation might might help. I think it's gotten much better,
Speaker 4: and that's kind of where I'm moving now with what
Speaker 4: I'm doing is I moved on from Hoonigan and now
Speaker 4: I'm partners with T Pain and Nappy Boy Automotive. It's
Speaker 4: black owned, you know, black forward facing, but all inclusive.
Speaker 4: We're definitely going to focus heavy on going to events
Speaker 4: and just building on that representation thing that we just
Speaker 4: spoke about.
Speaker 5: You know, It's funny.
Speaker 4: I was actually thinking about this the other day because
Speaker 4: because I fully let go of my pro dreams a
Speaker 4: long time ago, just because of cost and everything like that,
Speaker 4: but I also didn't expect me to be where I
Speaker 4: am today, so to speak, you know, and that's not
Speaker 4: me putting myself on a pedestal, but.
Speaker 2: No, I mean I will. You're a hero to so
Speaker 2: many people.
Speaker 4: You know, I have reach, I helped, you know. I
Speaker 4: worked at Honigan for ten years and that brand was
Speaker 4: a powerhouse in the automotive space. And you know, I
Speaker 4: have sponsors now and I do things and I'm going
Speaker 4: to try to build a real car next year. And
Speaker 4: I was just thinking about this the other day. I
Speaker 4: was like, why why don't I just try it for fun?
Speaker 4: You know, See what I can make happen. See who'd
Speaker 4: be willing to help support the dream. Honestly, I watch Formulad,
Speaker 4: I know so many of the drivers and the amount
Speaker 4: of work I'm going to have to do to even
Speaker 4: even make eye contact with them is going to be insane.
Speaker 4: But it would be such a fun challenge to do.
Speaker 4: So it's it's kind of creeping back up on my
Speaker 4: list necessary, you know, it would be very fun. You guys,
Speaker 4: got any stories you want to tell me? How did
Speaker 4: you get in the cars through the movie?
Speaker 1: No No. I had a neighbor when I was a kid, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, my household was not like the healthiest, so
Speaker 1: I'd like wander around the neighborhood, right, and there was
Speaker 1: this old man that was working on his sixty three
Speaker 1: or sixty nine Impella so ss with red interior, and
Speaker 1: he was an old Korean war vet and he had
Speaker 1: he would always have the radio like and everytime I
Speaker 1: hear beach Boy songs, I think of him. And he
Speaker 1: looked like the fawns, you know. He had his hair
Speaker 1: slicked back, and he had his like camel unfiltered cigarettes
Speaker 1: like rolled up in his sleeve and he would be
Speaker 1: restoring this old impella, right, and he would let me
Speaker 1: hang out with him, and he'd never ask any questions,
Speaker 1: like old school dude, you know, it's like people's business
Speaker 1: or their business, you know. But he just let me
Speaker 1: sit there in the garage while he's smoking and slowly
Speaker 1: restoring this car and ask him all these stupid questions
Speaker 1: like you know, what does SS mean? It's like why,
Speaker 1: you know, does it have to be red interior? Like
Speaker 1: what is like oem? Like why does it have to
Speaker 1: like come from factory? And he started showing me all
Speaker 1: these like catalogs from you know, from the manufacturers to
Speaker 1: buy the badging and you know, the interior parts and
Speaker 1: bits and and then I remember he was so happy
Speaker 1: the day that the convertible cloth or of the fabric
Speaker 1: was installed, and he goes, this is how it came
Speaker 1: out of factory, right. And so since I was a kid,
Speaker 1: you know, the idea of being like a caretaker for
Speaker 1: old cars was something that was planted by this gentleman.
Speaker 1: And that's why, you know, I'm not into racing and
Speaker 1: going fast, like I actually am not even into like
Speaker 1: showing my cars to people. It's really like the idea
Speaker 1: of being a historian, being a caretaker of these old
Speaker 1: cars and having this, you know, sanctuary in a garage,
Speaker 1: you know, especially, I'm always in search of like mentors too,
Speaker 1: so because I would say I know nothing. You know,
Speaker 1: as I get older, I realized I know less and less,
Speaker 1: and especially with cars, it's always something to learn. There's
Speaker 1: always somebody that knows way more than your Usually there
Speaker 1: are lessons you're going to learn from that person that
Speaker 1: you can apply to your life, right, And that's actually
Speaker 1: my connection to cars is that I get the opportunity
Speaker 1: to meet some amazing human beings that are passionate about
Speaker 1: these like you know, machines and these cars and their
Speaker 1: historians or their builders or their racers. And most of
Speaker 1: the time I walk away I and you know, people
Speaker 1: be very surprised I don't give a shit about the car.
Speaker 1: I do not. It's really I care about the person,
Speaker 1: and then I have a connection to the car.
Speaker 4: Hearing the story about the guy who used to let
Speaker 4: you hang on his garage actually helps me understand your
Speaker 4: builds and things like that, because you can see that
Speaker 4: kind of shine through those things.
Speaker 5: M M. That's really interesting.
Speaker 2: Do you like drifting?
Speaker 1: The drifting itself, I have no interest in, but because
Speaker 1: of the access I am allowed due to the fast
Speaker 1: and various movies. You know, I get to meet these
Speaker 1: like amazing seeing people within the drift community.
Speaker 2: The car stories, why they're.
Speaker 1: Drifters, and what it takes to be a drifter. Like
Speaker 1: I meet these professional drifters that tow their own cars
Speaker 1: from you know, Middle America and there, you know, there's
Speaker 1: six in a room, so their crew is like, you know,
Speaker 1: all sleeping on the floor together, and you know, I
Speaker 1: get I get excited and I get inspired by that enthusiasm,
Speaker 1: that passion. You know what I mean, Because I say
Speaker 1: this almost on a daily basis, But to keep you know,
Speaker 1: your headlight shining bright, the light behind your eyes. It's
Speaker 1: very hard as you get older because life, you know,
Speaker 1: fucks you up, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: So, and to what you're saying. When we went to
Speaker 2: the NASCAR race together, you were very passionate about standing
Speaker 2: by the pit boxes and watching them do tire changes
Speaker 2: and watching them work on the cars and seeing how
Speaker 2: quickly they were able to do it and how in
Speaker 2: unison they did it without communicating with their words but
Speaker 2: more of their hands.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But I think that also stems from maybe your entry
Speaker 2: point into automotive with this neighbor was based on the
Speaker 2: stories and seeing what he was able to create with
Speaker 2: his story, right, Yeah.
Speaker 4: I agree with that, Like telling that story really opened
Speaker 4: me up to to what you're into as a as
Speaker 4: a car person. But I'm also curious, what, uh what
Speaker 4: drift events have you been to? Just for me a
Speaker 4: d We're going to drag you out to some now
Speaker 4: yeah ft so so because you know, I go to
Speaker 4: an event annually called Final Bout.
Speaker 5: So next year, let's make that.
Speaker 1: I think that'll probably be more of my thing.
Speaker 2: I've always wanted to go to a final about when
Speaker 2: like Instagram was like first popping off. I used to
Speaker 2: fall Animal Styles, that's their name. I used to I
Speaker 2: don't know these people in real life. I just I
Speaker 2: just like I still don't know who they are today,
Speaker 2: but that was their stuff was really sick.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So it's team based, so it's no there's no individual
Speaker 4: individual scores and.
Speaker 2: Find your squad.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So the first year, first two years, I drove an
Speaker 4: Animal Style Okay, Final Bout, and I mean I held
Speaker 4: him back, but I'm a lot better now.
Speaker 5: So if we want to run it back, well, you
Speaker 5: know we can do that.
Speaker 4: But you know, your car show score gets taken in
Speaker 4: and then the driving happens, which is basically a jam
Speaker 4: session with the teams, so all.
Speaker 2: The style and like a tandem of three so.
Speaker 5: Minimum three, and there are teams with up to like
Speaker 5: seven cars.
Speaker 2: That all sounds so cool.
Speaker 5: It's really cool. It's really cool.
Speaker 4: And you know, there are teams where I've been this
Speaker 4: person on the team where there's one guy kind of
Speaker 4: holding it back, right, just not doing.
Speaker 2: As well because you want to be door to door as.
Speaker 4: Close as you can be, as smooth as you can be.
Speaker 4: And sometimes there's a guy or two that kind of
Speaker 4: hold the team back. But you can't park that guy.
Speaker 4: You guys are a team. It's not about winning. It's
Speaker 4: about bringing your team together and doing the best that
Speaker 4: you can. And so because you are like, if if
Speaker 4: you park that guy and we find out you park
Speaker 4: that guy, you're going to lose points because that's just
Speaker 4: not that's not what you're here for.
Speaker 1: You know, who is the one of the founder a
Speaker 1: final about that lives out in la that has the
Speaker 1: ft ilia. Yeah, yeah, Iliah keeps pressing me to go
Speaker 1: to final. I was supposed to go to this advent.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they good enjoy man I mean, obviously, I totally
Speaker 4: understand where you're coming from and you're feeling in cars.
Speaker 4: I actually love that you can say that proudly, you know,
Speaker 4: because some people will probably you know, kind of keep
Speaker 4: that inside and not want to share that.
Speaker 5: Just you know, people like to fit in. I'll never
Speaker 5: fit in.
Speaker 1: I still don't fit in, So there's like, you know,
Speaker 1: a question of yeah, I do not fit in anywhere still,
Speaker 1: so that it's okay not to.
Speaker 5: Fit in I don't fit in cars.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But I mean you're right. I think people assume
Speaker 1: because you know, of Han like I am this like
Speaker 1: car expert and mechanic and professional level like drifter.
Speaker 2: Well, I think people see Han when they talk to
Speaker 2: so they don't understand that that's a character you're playing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And then I used to get like bashed because
Speaker 1: I would go That's why it's very hard for me
Speaker 1: to go to like cars and coffee. You know, I
Speaker 1: have to like drop up a lot of courage to
Speaker 1: go there because I would go and being inquisitive and
Speaker 1: just being very naive. I would go to like dudes
Speaker 1: and go, hey, can you tell me about this car?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 1: And you know, like I remember, like the first time
Speaker 1: like the R Eights came out. I was so infatuated
Speaker 1: with this car and there are these dudes that modified it.
Speaker 1: And I went over there and I was like, can
Speaker 1: you tell me about this? And like what motors in here?
Speaker 1: And like what are you guys doing? Like how do
Speaker 1: you modify? Like how do you get the horsepar? And
Speaker 1: I thought like I was making friends, right, and maybe
Speaker 1: if I wasn't han it, you know, they would have
Speaker 1: been more accepting. But this is where I also realized, oh,
Speaker 1: you have to be careful in the car com it's
Speaker 1: very cliquish too, Like after I left, they were talking
Speaker 1: like hello, shit about me. It actually like made me
Speaker 1: go maybe I do not belong here right then, And
Speaker 1: as time went on, the circle of friends that I have, right,
Speaker 1: you know, they're so supportive in the car community, they're
Speaker 1: just you know, amazing people. And you start to realize
Speaker 1: just because their car dudes, it doesn't make us family, right, right,
Speaker 1: Like some people are into cars for different reasons.
Speaker 4: And that's a tough that's a tough situation, you know,
Speaker 4: being vulnerable and just being open like oh what's this
Speaker 4: and and then getting that kind of backlash. But I'm
Speaker 4: glad it didn't stop you from continuing to have fun.
Speaker 1: And now they motivated me to change kind of you know,
Speaker 1: the environment too, and to be like an ambassador for
Speaker 1: this change of inclusiveness, to go, hey man, you know
Speaker 1: it's okay that you don't know anything, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: come and enjoy and let us like share the knowledge.
Speaker 1: You know. I believe that it is our responsibility to
Speaker 1: you know, be mentors and you know, to be able
Speaker 1: to pass off this knowledge. And you know, it is
Speaker 1: frustrating at times where people hoard their knowledge, right. You know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think is very important for someone with your
Speaker 4: reach to be in the automotive community because like a
Speaker 4: lot of people fear that the automotive space will eventually
Speaker 4: die out. But as long as we have people like
Speaker 4: you with your reach and your stardom sharing the love
Speaker 4: for it, somebody's going to see it and it just
Speaker 4: kind of keeps trickling up. And that's that's another thing
Speaker 4: that I love about, you know, working with t Pain.
Speaker 4: He has cars, he's had, you know, fancy cars and
Speaker 4: fun cars, but he's not a super car guy either,
Speaker 4: you know, and he's learning now as as we go
Speaker 4: through this process, I think he's learned a lot, but
Speaker 4: him not being afraid to be vulnerable. I think it's
Speaker 4: great because like we went to we've we've done three
Speaker 4: really big track days this year and he's still in
Speaker 4: very much in a learning phase of drifting. You could
Speaker 4: have just wrecked your car in front of all these
Speaker 4: people and they would be so excited that you wrecked
Speaker 4: your car because then they get to go online and
Speaker 4: talk shit, you know. And and but he didn't. He
Speaker 4: did great. He handled the pressure well, he made the adjustments,
Speaker 4: he took his time and learned.
Speaker 5: And I don't know, I just.
Speaker 1: Love that, you know, thanks for sharing that. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, him willing to be vulnerable, right and taking
Speaker 1: having the courage to fail.
Speaker 5: Yep. I mean that's it's a big deal. Yeah, it's
Speaker 5: a really big deal.
Speaker 4: And he wears it on his sleeve too, like we'll
Speaker 4: be there the day before. I'm like, you're ready. He's like, no,
Speaker 4: I'm not ready. I don't you know. He's very honest,
Speaker 4: very humble. Honestly he said this, and this might be oversharing,
Speaker 4: but he's like, I don't need money, you know, because
Speaker 4: he's done well for himself. He's like, so I'm not
Speaker 4: asking you to join me in this so that you
Speaker 4: can make me money. He didn't want me to think
Speaker 4: that he was using me as an entry point into
Speaker 4: the automotive space since I had just been, you know,
Speaker 4: been a part of Honigan for so long and this
Speaker 4: and that. But he made it very clear, He's like,
Speaker 4: this isn't a this isn't a money thing. This is
Speaker 4: something that I'm passionate about. And this is something I
Speaker 4: can see you're clearly passionate about, and so that just
Speaker 4: makes me want us to go on this journey together.
Speaker 2: The brief time that I met him when I was
Speaker 2: in Atlanta, I see a sincereness from him, and even
Speaker 2: just you saying this, I'm like, I could I believe
Speaker 2: that just from the little time that I that I
Speaker 2: got to literally say hi to him. Yeah, it's sincere
Speaker 2: and he just likes cars and wants to get into.
Speaker 5: It's out of this world, you know.
Speaker 4: And the same goes with you and the people that
Speaker 4: I met on the hot Wheel set, Like you just
Speaker 4: don't expect people who do who have done these amazing.
Speaker 5: Things, to just be normal humans.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: You know, I was taught, you.
Speaker 1: Know, when I was younger, that the camera doesn't lie
Speaker 1: I think it was actually Sevestia Stillone told me that
Speaker 1: because I asked him a question. I said, how does
Speaker 1: one become like a superhero? How does one become Rocky Balboa?
Speaker 1: And he simply said, the camera does not lie. There's
Speaker 1: certain people that can never play that role because that's
Speaker 1: not who they are, right And I think T Pain recognized,
Speaker 1: like with it what Amelia was saying about himself of
Speaker 1: being a sincere person because he has feet on the
Speaker 1: ground and being truthful. And then like, when I see
Speaker 1: your content, I see no pretense. Literally, I see no like,
Speaker 1: you know, fakery, Like you are who you are and
Speaker 1: then when I meet you, you are who I thought
Speaker 1: you were going to be. And there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people that have this pretense. It's all show. And I think,
Speaker 1: especially with the pressures of social media, people feel like
Speaker 1: they need to embody this idea, you know, because I
Speaker 1: didn't understand what this partnership with T Pain is and
Speaker 1: it's super cool to hear that it's about like this
Speaker 1: positive sincere representation, and I think that's going to make
Speaker 1: a tremendous difference in the car community for other African
Speaker 1: American kids that wonder, you know, like how do I be,
Speaker 1: you know, be a part of this community right And
Speaker 1: you know, when I met you, I was like, what
Speaker 1: a great ambassador you know, And you know part I
Speaker 1: hope you don't change because they say, you know, fame
Speaker 1: changes people, but money changes people. I'm the same guy,
Speaker 1: but I think you're
Speaker 2: You're also and I'm so happy we got to chat
Speaker 2: with you.