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Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child

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Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador

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Speaker 1: accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with

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Speaker 1: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just

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Speaker 1: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President

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Speaker 1: Donald J.

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Speaker 2: Trump's leadership.

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Speaker 1: I'm Christy nom the United States Secretary of Homeland Security.

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Speaker 1: Under President Trump, attempted illegal border crossings are at the

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Speaker 1: lowest levels ever recorded, and over one hundred thousand illegal

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Speaker 1: aliens have been arrested. If you are here illegally, your

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Speaker 1: next you will be fined nearly one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned,

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Speaker 1: and deported.

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Speaker 2: You will never return.

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Speaker 1: But if you register using our CBP home app and

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Speaker 1: leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.

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Speaker 2: Do what's right. Leave now.

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Speaker 1: Under President Trump, America's laws, border and families will be protected.

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Speaker 3: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security.

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Speaker 4: All right, guys, welcome back. E y l We're back

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Speaker 4: home for a day. Would around the world. So this

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Speaker 4: is a very important episode for a variety of different reasons.

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Speaker 4: If you follow you while you know that market. Monday

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Speaker 4: is on his world tour started in La Toronto, Canada, London, Chicago,

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Speaker 4: and we're going to end the year in Ghana.

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Speaker 5: Very important to this.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, Ghana is one of these places that has gotten

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Speaker 4: a lot of recognition in the last couple of years

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Speaker 4: for a variety of different things, but one of the

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Speaker 4: main reasons why they've gotten recognition is a festival my

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Speaker 4: graduates from my school being Forts back Drop, b Drop,

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Speaker 4: Mike Drop back Drop. It used to be called Afro Cella.

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Speaker 4: It's changed its name to Afro Future. Yes, and it's

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Speaker 4: real big. It's a culture music type vibe. It has,

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Speaker 4: I guess brought in over four billion dollars of tourism.

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Speaker 6: That was in twenty nineteen. It definitely brought more and since.

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Speaker 4: Then, okay, created over five thousand jobs.

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 6: We hire on average about one thousand to two thousand

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Speaker 6: people every year.

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Speaker 4: And it's at the end of the summer. So it's

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Speaker 4: a big festival. It's music music festival.

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Speaker 6: Right, yeah, but it's a cultural festival. And for us

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Speaker 6: it's like equal parts music, ego parts, fashion ego parts

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Speaker 6: are eco part food and all those elements come together

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Speaker 6: to kind of create the experience that we're trying to create.

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Speaker 6: It's an immersion of culture all at once, and it

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Speaker 6: kind of takes all your senses at once. And I

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Speaker 6: think that's why people keep coming back, because there's a

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Speaker 6: place where there's a safety, there is a beauty, and

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Speaker 6: you see yourself and all the people around you, and

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Speaker 6: you're really just having a good time. And I think

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Speaker 6: that's the beauty of what we've created.

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Speaker 4: Abdul Kareem Abdullah, Sir, Founder of Afrochella currently called Afro Future.

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Speaker 4: That's correct. But you are a native of the Bronx, yes, forever, yes, whatever.

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Speaker 4: So your family, your family's from Ghana.

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Speaker 5: Burnside to be specific.

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Speaker 4: Ye, your family from Ghana. You're from the Bronx. But

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Speaker 4: first and foremost, thank you for coming. Appreciate it.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I appreciate you.

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Speaker 6: Appreciate you familiar with these parts. I am familiar with

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Speaker 6: with white plans. You know, I actually got my prom

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Speaker 6: my prom suit when I was the block at the

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Speaker 6: gallery exactly.

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Speaker 5: Really, I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rest in peace.

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Speaker 4: The casualty of malls. You malls all around the country closing.

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Speaker 6: They had some flying stuff that remember, I was going

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Speaker 6: to get the right suit to match the Mory's.

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Speaker 4: You know, we were talking, we was talking, was talking

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Speaker 4: about about this, and he was saying that, you know,

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Speaker 4: he always had chip on his shoulder coming from Westchester

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Speaker 4: because everybody was like, what is upstate? Like nobody really

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Speaker 4: gave Westchester any credit. But I feel like the Bronx

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Speaker 4: at least knows where Westchester is. Absolutely Brooklyn. They think

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Speaker 4: Westchester is like Canada, next to all, but it was

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Speaker 4: right there.

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Speaker 6: I grew up in. I grew up in the Bronx

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Speaker 6: soas my family lived right thereas by Riverdale, so I

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Speaker 6: know Youkas, I know the block. My brothers actually still

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Speaker 6: live on, so I'm very familiar Westchester.

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Speaker 4: Appreciate I appreciate that absolutely. All right, So let's get

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Speaker 4: into this. So all right, you have a huge festival

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Speaker 4: that you started, and then, like I said, the way

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Speaker 4: for Ghana has just been crazy because the year return.

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Speaker 4: We'll talk about that, and I think they have really

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Speaker 4: done the best job at promoting tourism for Black Americans

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Speaker 4: because people want to go back to Africa, but there's

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Speaker 4: never really been a roadmap of what to do, where

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Speaker 4: to go, and so it's just like you just got

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Speaker 4: a whole continent, and of course Egypt has always you

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Speaker 4: know stood out for a historical standpoint, but for like

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Speaker 4: a black experience, there was never any roadmap in Ghana.

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Speaker 4: Kind of saw opportunity, I think, and really and then

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Speaker 4: you come in and that plays apart. So where's the

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Speaker 4: idea for the festival start?

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Speaker 6: It starts some time in about twenty fifteen. My partner

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Speaker 6: Kenny Kenneth of JAPONS, he's in Ghana right now. He

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Speaker 6: lives in Ghana, and you know, he was fresh coming

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Speaker 6: back from you know, moving from the United States. He

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Speaker 6: was in grad school and you know, he was finishing

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Speaker 6: up grad school and he had a couple of Chinese

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Speaker 6: guys that was graduating with him, and they were all

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Speaker 6: talking about what they were doing after and you know,

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Speaker 6: the Chinese guys like, well, we're moving to Ghana. And

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Speaker 6: he was confused and he was like, how y'all moving

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Speaker 6: to Ghana. I'm from Ghana. We're moving back to Ghana.

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Speaker 6: So he ended up going to Ghana and that year

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Speaker 6: we were all in Ghana in December and year this

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Speaker 6: is twenty fifteen. And you know, Europeans have always been

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Speaker 6: in Ghana, so if they're from London, Germany and France.

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Speaker 6: They've always been as early as six hour flight. It's

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Speaker 6: not that long of a experience, but we were there,

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Speaker 6: and we were like very few Americans were there, so

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Speaker 6: we always knew that there was an opportunity for us

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Speaker 6: to bring people back from America. We were already doing

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Speaker 6: parties here in the United States, just kind of like

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Speaker 6: celebrating African culture, so bringing artists having a perform giving

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Speaker 6: an experience to people like me who are like first

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Speaker 6: generation that are growing up in the United States to

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Speaker 6: kind of connect to the music. And we was like,

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Speaker 6: you know, it just didn't make sense that they weren't

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Speaker 6: enough Americans here seeing what the beauty was here. And

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Speaker 6: I also kind of grew up between cultures, right so

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Speaker 6: at home to Africo American to be African and outside,

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Speaker 6: you know, in school, I was an African kid, like

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Speaker 6: in high school throughout junior high school. So it's really

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Speaker 6: just kind of like how do I make people see

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Speaker 6: like it's really lit out here, you know, And my

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Speaker 6: team and I we just started recording these videos like

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Speaker 6: you know, the Africa they don't show you and really

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Speaker 6: just kind of like recording our experiences and people were like, yo,

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Speaker 6: that's that's Africa that's really gone at us. And you know,

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Speaker 6: eventually we started bringing you know, ten people, fifteen people,

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Speaker 6: forty people, and eventually, you know, we wanted to throw

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Speaker 6: a party because you know, we're like, you know, we

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Speaker 6: throw parties in the city. We could do it in

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Speaker 6: Ghana and it failed to use a promoter as a

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Speaker 6: promoter in the city in the city. Clubs, clubs, yeah,

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Speaker 6: I did Stage forty eight. You know, a bunch of

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Speaker 6: the big clubs sold it out. We've done a bunch

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Speaker 6: of those Gramsey Theater. I've done a bunch of concerts

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Speaker 6: here as well. Before you know, we went to Ghana

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Speaker 6: to do that. You know, we threw the party. It failed,

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Speaker 6: and I'm like, well, the beauty in the failure was

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Speaker 6: that there were young artists that were performing that I

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Speaker 6: thought were just kind of like excellent, and I just

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Speaker 6: didn't understand why they were in mainstream because they were

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Speaker 6: that good. They were captivated. So I'm like, well, there's

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Speaker 6: something here. So we had to reassess in our meeting.

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Speaker 6: I'm like, you know, I think the problem that we're

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Speaker 6: having is everybody's throwing a party. Everybody is just like

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Speaker 6: really coming here to party, and most people would leave

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Speaker 6: and they would say, oh they weren't Ganna, they weren't

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Speaker 6: gan It, but they never connected or you know, people

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Speaker 6: on the ground would say, well you diaspirins, ad come

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Speaker 6: in for two weeks, spend all your money and then

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Speaker 6: leave and nothing impact is coming.

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Speaker 4: So yeah, wageriens.

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 6: So basically that's what that's the Twitter word for us.

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Speaker 6: That's us. So that's all the black people that live

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Speaker 6: outside of the yap after they eespor. So there was like,

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Speaker 6: you know, you come in, you spend your little bread,

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Speaker 6: and you bounce and nothing is really impacting. And I'm like, well,

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Speaker 6: we can create an experience where now we can like

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Speaker 6: connect people who are doing amazing things, because if you

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Speaker 6: look around the world people in the day as we

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Speaker 6: are doing amazing things, you know, from Ghana, from Nigeria,

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Speaker 6: from all parts of Africa. And I just felt like

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Speaker 6: it was a love loss for us to just kind

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Speaker 6: of like come to Ghana party and then leave and

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Speaker 6: not really bring back some of the greatness that we

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Speaker 6: were learning abroad.

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Speaker 7: So so prior to twenty fifteen, I mean you said

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Speaker 7: you had your from your parents are from Ghana. Had

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Speaker 7: you been going back to the continent. Have you visited

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Speaker 7: or you just like twenty fifteen, this is brand new

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Speaker 7: to me. Let's figure this thing out.

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Speaker 6: No, So nineteen ninety five, my dad sent us back

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Speaker 6: to Ghana. They called as deportees. My aunt was calling

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Speaker 6: us deportees because, like you know, it was like a punishment,

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Speaker 6: like you know, for your to send you back to Africa.

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Speaker 6: Every African kid that grew up in America or anywhere

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Speaker 6: else knew when your parents told you that you was

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Speaker 6: going to get sent back to Africa. It was like

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Speaker 6: a punishment. And so they sent us back on ninety five.

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Speaker 6: I went to school there. I went to school there

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Speaker 6: for seven and a half eight years.

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Speaker 5: Oh a year.

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Speaker 6: I thought, it's like doing a summer trip. No, no, no, no,

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Speaker 6: I lived. I lived in Ghana. I live in Medina,

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Speaker 6: you know. I lived in North Carnation. So a lot

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Speaker 6: of the relationships I have now in Ghana are built

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Speaker 6: based on the fact that I lived there and some

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Speaker 6: of the students, some of the people that my partners

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Speaker 6: were my friends in school, that we grew up together.

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Speaker 6: Some of the people that I look up to, us

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Speaker 6: big brothers in the industry in the space of Ghana

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Speaker 6: are people that I've always looked up to unknown since

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Speaker 6: i was a kid, so I've had deep connections there.

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Speaker 6: I've seen what it's like to live there in luxury

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Speaker 6: but also not so much luxury. And I've also lived here,

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Speaker 6: so I've had best of both experiences. And I felt

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Speaker 6: like I could communicate. I can go to Ghana and

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Speaker 6: chilling Medina's on Goal, which is where my grandmother is from,

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Speaker 6: and I could be completely completely fine, or go to Nima,

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Speaker 6: you know, and be completely fine. Oh, go to the

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Speaker 6: Jubilee House where the presidents and I'm being completely uncomfortable,

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Speaker 6: or front back anywhere in the cry right. And I

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Speaker 6: love the fact that I could do that. In the Bronx.

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Speaker 6: I could go to La, I mean, I could be

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Speaker 6: good in La. I could go to you know, anywhere.

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Speaker 6: And you know, I used to be afraid to go

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Speaker 6: to Brooklyn, but now I'm in Brooklyn all the time.

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Speaker 6: So it's like, you know, being able to kind of

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Speaker 6: understand the cultures separately but together. It was something that

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Speaker 6: has been an asset to us in building so what

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Speaker 6: we built.

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Speaker 4: I want to ask about the festival before then let's

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Speaker 4: go through this. You're born in America, where Yeah, were

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Speaker 4: you born eighty eight, You're born in eighty eight. In

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Speaker 4: ninety five, you go to Africa, Ghana for seven years, yep.

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Speaker 4: So that's like what like third grade something like that.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, second second grade, scond grade up until like I

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Speaker 6: came back when I was in eighth grade.

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Speaker 4: So you go from second grade to eighth grade, which

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Speaker 4: effectively is like where you're actually growing up. So you're

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Speaker 4: growing up in Ghana, come back in for high school

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Speaker 4: in New York, YEP.

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Speaker 6: Went to Walton High School, high school for teaching professions

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Speaker 6: in Walton Hide the high school inside of the so

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Speaker 6: you know, we wore uniforms crazy. But you know, even

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Speaker 6: like transitioning between coming back from Ghana to go to school,

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Speaker 6: it was a culture shock because I hear students talking

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Speaker 6: back to.

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Speaker 4: Teachers That's what I was doing. So it's like, all right,

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Speaker 4: you like French Mantana. He he moved to the Bronx

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Speaker 4: from Morocco, Africa, but he just was in there for

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Speaker 4: twelve years and they moved. So it's it's not as

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Speaker 4: you were in America in the Bronx, went to Ghana

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Speaker 4: and came back to the Bronx. How was that for

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Speaker 4: you as far as a culture, Shock is concerned and

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Speaker 4: we have another friend from Nigeria and he was saying,

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Speaker 4: like in Nigeria, that's real popular. Like parents make sure

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Speaker 4: that their kids go back to their country for a

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Speaker 4: couple of years just they don't want them to lose

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Speaker 4: the culture. And they don't even live with them, like

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Speaker 4: they'll send them with an art or.

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Speaker 6: I lived with my grandmother and my uncle. So I

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Speaker 6: lived with my uncle the first couple of years and

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Speaker 6: then with my grandmother, which was an experience. My uncle

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Speaker 6: hustled in Japan as in he left Ghana to go

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Speaker 6: to Japan to learn how to make money. So he

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Speaker 6: moved back to Ghana to start his own businesses. And

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Speaker 6: but it was very different in that because I'm not

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Speaker 6: with my parents, I don't really know him as an

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Speaker 6: uncle like that. I just met him when I moved

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Speaker 6: into his house. You know, we're living in a house

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Speaker 6: that is in Medina's own goal. It's very different than

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Speaker 6: the people we go to school with, who are all

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Speaker 6: living in like luxury. So my dad kind of in

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Speaker 6: his mind he did that purposefully because he wanted us

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Speaker 6: to be able to have that balance at the time.

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Speaker 6: I'm not gonna lie didn't like it. I just it

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Speaker 6: was just kind of like I didn't understand why they

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Speaker 6: would leave us here. You know, every once in a while,

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Speaker 6: like they'll make us feel happy by like shipping us

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Speaker 6: a bunch of boxes of cereal or like powdered milk.

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Speaker 6: You know, you know, you know, it just kind of

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Speaker 6: made you take an appreciation for like being able to

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Speaker 6: go to a corner store and get like a gallon

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Speaker 6: of milk or get a bag of chips, or a quarter soda,

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Speaker 6: the quarter of water or something like that. Back then,

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Speaker 6: so whenever we would get to come back for the

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Speaker 6: summertime with the best times right because then you get

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Speaker 6: to go back to Ghana and go to school and

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Speaker 6: show them all the new kicks, showed them all the

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Speaker 6: new gear, tell them like all the new music that's

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Speaker 6: going on out. Yeah, you're the man when you when

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Speaker 6: you have that, I guess proximity to abroad in Ghana

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Speaker 6: during those times, you were the man. Like you know

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Speaker 6: what I mean, it was it was very very unpopular.

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Speaker 6: I think the Internet has kind of changed that because

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Speaker 6: now they could see everything as we see it. But

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Speaker 6: back then, you know, you were the man because you

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Speaker 6: kind of brought them culture that they didn't really have

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Speaker 6: access to. So yeah, it was interesting. So and I

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Speaker 6: think we came right around nine to eleven, we moved

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Speaker 6: back to the US, and my pops was like, you know,

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Speaker 6: do you guys want to stay? Like yeah, like you know,

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Speaker 6: and you know, we stayed, and it was it was

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Speaker 6: a culture shop because going to school, like I knew

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Speaker 6: about the clothes, like, you know, my brother would let

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Speaker 6: me hold his Jordan's I'll never forget.

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Speaker 5: You know.

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Speaker 6: That's the reason why to to this day, I'm still

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Speaker 6: trying to find the cool grade elevens because my dad,

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Speaker 6: my brother would let me rock the I know, but

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Speaker 6: it's cool. The threes are my favorite, so you know

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Speaker 6: our rockers, you know. And you know, the thing that

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Speaker 6: connected all of us was hip hop. Like you know,

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Speaker 6: at the time, I think Jada Kiss and Beanie Seagulls

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Speaker 6: was was going and my brother was like always putting

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Speaker 6: us on to like the music, letting us know what's

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Speaker 6: going on. So you know, that was the one thing

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Speaker 6: I could connect with them on because you know, we

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Speaker 6: were talk to be demeor like to teachers, like you

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Speaker 6: couldn't talk back to a teacher, You couldn't look at

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Speaker 6: him in an eye because you were afraid that you

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Speaker 6: would get beat and I was in Ghana, they would beat.

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Speaker 6: It was so back. Yeah, people were just cursing that teachers.

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Speaker 7: I was on I've seen I was on the end

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Speaker 7: of that look at like you're talking to the teacher

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Speaker 7: like like you know what I mean.

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Speaker 6: So it was it was an interesting you know culture,

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Speaker 6: culture shock at the time because I wasn't used to

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Speaker 6: that for a very long time. I couldn't understand how

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Speaker 6: people were talking to teachers like that at the time.

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Speaker 5: How quickly did you adapt to that?

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Speaker 6: Uh? You know, I never talked I think one time

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Speaker 6: in high school. But that's that was out of anger, man,

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Speaker 6: somebody trying to play me, you know, you know throwing paper,

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Speaker 6: those are those are the things that's like the only

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Speaker 6: five ever had in high school and you know that.

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Speaker 6: But outside of that, like you know, it was it

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Speaker 6: was dangerous then because it was a lot of gangs.

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Speaker 4: And did you did you have issues like embracing your

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Speaker 4: African because like you said, now, it's a vibe as

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Speaker 4: far as afrobeats has really you know, it's made it cool.

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Speaker 4: But back then, you know, kids is ignorant and cruel

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Speaker 4: and just people just ignorant in general. So I see,

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Speaker 4: I've personally seen like African kids getting teased like you

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Speaker 4: know what I'm saying, and it's it's looking back on it,

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Speaker 4: that's something that's very miss It's unfortunate, but I've seen

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Speaker 4: it happen and in any group of people, right, that's

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Speaker 4: just happens. Like so, I guess sometimes you either like

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Speaker 4: drill down on just like becoming you just have a

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Speaker 4: pack of people, or sometimes you just try to assimilate

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Speaker 4: and you try to get away from who you are.

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Speaker 6: Nah, I couldn't do that. My parents had a restaurant.

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Speaker 6: It was really well known that this is a restaurant.

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Speaker 6: When I came back from Ghana, I had an accent,

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Speaker 6: it was thick, like you know what I mean. But

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Speaker 6: you know it was just jokes, right, So if somebody

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Speaker 6: joked on me, I joked on them like I'm African

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Speaker 6: but I'm flying. You like those kinds of things work

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Speaker 6: back then like you know what I'm saying, but you

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Speaker 6: know what I'm saying. It would just be like quick

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Speaker 6: jokes and then eventually you know kids are shallow and

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Speaker 6: that they didn't really joke on you. If it was

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Speaker 6: fly like or if you had like a little bit

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Speaker 6: of money or something like that. It was like the

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Speaker 6: one thing that that let them know. And then also

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Speaker 6: like I had to have a very big family in

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Speaker 6: the Bronx, like you know what I mean. I have

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Speaker 6: seven brothers, eight brothers, mad cousins like you know what

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Speaker 6: I mean. So it wasn't something that people I wasn't

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Speaker 6: an outcast. I wasn't something that like I don't remember

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Speaker 6: ever getting picked on, like you know, because you know,

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Speaker 6: my big brother will come on maybe once in the

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Speaker 6: eighth grade. You know, I got picked came up to

362
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Speaker 6: don't forget Yeah, so you don't forget that, like you

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Speaker 6: know what I'm saying. But like I always had people

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Speaker 6: in my community that was like always gonna hold it down.

365
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Speaker 6: And I knew the blocks like right on Burnside Avenue,

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Speaker 6: that's our neighborhood, Like people knew like my whole family.

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Speaker 6: Nobody really messed with my Dominicans up there. All of

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Speaker 6: them know like who my pops is and who my block,

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Speaker 6: like my brothers are, my family is. They don't really

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Speaker 6: Cedric Avenue, you know right there at Bertha of hip Hop,

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Speaker 6: you know, right by Walton, you know, we grew up there,

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Speaker 6: so my cousins were there, and they were in the

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Speaker 6: neighborhood for a long time. Nobody really messed with us, like,

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Speaker 6: you know, so it was really just about being able

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Speaker 6: to get from high school to home, right, So being

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Speaker 6: able to five passed that four.

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Speaker 7: People really don't understand that, being like, and it's something

378
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Speaker 7: I had to learn, right.

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Speaker 5: So we went to school out here.

380
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Speaker 7: But like when I started teaching it and I started coaching,

381
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Speaker 7: I'm so used to being transported to and from like.

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Speaker 5: Like a game, by a school bus.

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Speaker 7: Until I realized I gotta take the five train, yep,

384
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Speaker 7: and I gotta take two train, and I gotta take

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Speaker 7: the bus. And it's like you're susceptible to everything. But

386
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Speaker 7: then you forget, like the kid who's getting on the

387
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Speaker 7: bus at ten years old, or the training, he's susceptible

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Speaker 7: to everything too. So like that being in New York City,

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Speaker 7: like those things you don't even think. You're just kind

390
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Speaker 7: of like all right, part of life.

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Speaker 6: I didn't realize it was trauma until I got to Syracuse,

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Speaker 6: because yeah, Syracuse, like you would go through the metal

393
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Speaker 6: textors to go to school, yep. You know, there was

394
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Speaker 6: a time, I didn't even go to the second floor

395
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Speaker 6: because DDP was there.

396
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Speaker 5: Like you know what I'm saying.

397
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Speaker 6: It was it was just like if you were black,

398
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Speaker 6: you was you know, anything could happen. Or the non

399
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Speaker 6: bus or the twenty two bus. You know, people coming

400
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Speaker 6: from Kennedy, right from Kennedy. Then you meeting with people

401
00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:28,800
Speaker 6: going from Walton on the four train, come with people

402
00:18:28,800 --> 00:18:32,200
Speaker 6: from Evander. It was just like so many different ways

403
00:18:32,240 --> 00:18:34,560
Speaker 6: that it was dangerous that you know, it was an

404
00:18:34,560 --> 00:18:37,800
Speaker 6: interesting time, but you know, thankfully, like you know, for me,

405
00:18:38,160 --> 00:18:40,439
Speaker 6: I was always a pretty good student. But also like

406
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Speaker 6: because I had my family, you know, I didn't really

407
00:18:42,840 --> 00:18:45,480
Speaker 6: have that many problems. I knew people in Roosevelt, I

408
00:18:45,520 --> 00:18:47,520
Speaker 6: knew people in all of these schools that like will

409
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Speaker 6: always hold it down for me and a family, So

410
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Speaker 6: we never had much worries, you know what I mean.

411
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Speaker 6: You know, my dad told us how to defend ourselves

412
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Speaker 6: as well in the block as well, So we was

413
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Speaker 6: always good. But it was definitely a culture shop because

414
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Speaker 6: it was something I didn't have to worry about in Ghana.

415
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Speaker 6: Like you know, in Ghana, all I had to worry

416
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Speaker 6: about was going to school. The driver come pick us up,

417
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Speaker 6: take us home, the food we made for us. You know,

418
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Speaker 6: maybe they aren our clothes for us, to wash our

419
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Speaker 6: clothes for us on the weekend. I didn't have to

420
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Speaker 6: wear about any of that when I came to back

421
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Speaker 6: to America. It was just kind of like reality about,

422
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Speaker 6: you know, knowing how to protect yourself in that time.

423
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Speaker 6: I think New York is completely different than it was

424
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Speaker 6: when I was going up in high school from you know,

425
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Speaker 6: from my perspective now, maybe I'm just kind of in

426
00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:31,840
Speaker 6: what way, I just don't think it's as deep, you know,

427
00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:37,800
Speaker 6: I remember it was. I just remember like it's more dangerous, no,

428
00:19:37,840 --> 00:19:41,080
Speaker 6: but I just I remember like it was a thing

429
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Speaker 6: to not wear red.

430
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Speaker 4: Oh yeah, the gang thing. The gang thing. That was

431
00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:46,920
Speaker 4: early stages of the game. So that was like heavy.

432
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Speaker 4: They were still like triping off of colors. Not like

433
00:19:49,840 --> 00:19:51,720
Speaker 4: that now, but it's still still.

434
00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:54,439
Speaker 6: I remember like being afraid to get a book fifty

435
00:19:54,560 --> 00:19:56,720
Speaker 6: like you know, that was that was that was a

436
00:19:56,760 --> 00:19:59,120
Speaker 6: real feel right, So and I feel like I don't

437
00:19:59,119 --> 00:20:02,359
Speaker 6: necessarily know that that is a thing that I'm like

438
00:20:02,400 --> 00:20:04,280
Speaker 6: afraid to do. Like I don't know a block in

439
00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:05,960
Speaker 6: New York City that I'm afraid to walk on back

440
00:20:06,040 --> 00:20:08,440
Speaker 6: then it was like, yo, I don't know about going there.

441
00:20:08,520 --> 00:20:10,040
Speaker 4: But she was also a kid though too.

442
00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:13,159
Speaker 7: That's what I'm saying. Your environment, that's all you know.

443
00:20:13,720 --> 00:20:16,440
Speaker 7: It's like said eight block radius. We don't leave here,

444
00:20:16,760 --> 00:20:18,520
Speaker 7: and if we do, we better be on God if

445
00:20:18,520 --> 00:20:19,040
Speaker 7: we leave here.

446
00:20:19,080 --> 00:20:21,320
Speaker 6: Absolutely, So, I mean it was interesting. I think that

447
00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:23,480
Speaker 6: all of that just kind of made me who I am,

448
00:20:23,560 --> 00:20:27,000
Speaker 6: and and all of that has seeped through in the

449
00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:29,640
Speaker 6: way I've developed the business and how I'm thoughtful about

450
00:20:29,680 --> 00:20:33,080
Speaker 6: how we invite people, how we extend our relationships to

451
00:20:33,320 --> 00:20:35,960
Speaker 6: like two different people that we collaborate with and have

452
00:20:36,080 --> 00:20:38,280
Speaker 6: them come back to Donna, because it's really just to

453
00:20:38,359 --> 00:20:41,520
Speaker 6: kind of show them that there's a completely new world

454
00:20:41,560 --> 00:20:44,760
Speaker 6: where you can just kind of like walk freely. For me,

455
00:20:44,880 --> 00:20:46,520
Speaker 6: one of my joys is like walking and Gona and

456
00:20:46,560 --> 00:20:48,240
Speaker 6: seeing my friends that are now from gond to just

457
00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:51,440
Speaker 6: walk in the streets, just be and I love that

458
00:20:51,480 --> 00:20:51,760
Speaker 6: for them.

459
00:20:51,800 --> 00:20:54,639
Speaker 7: You said that, I mean, obviously you've created a successful business,

460
00:20:54,640 --> 00:20:57,480
Speaker 7: but it's not the business that your dad had, right,

461
00:20:57,520 --> 00:21:01,240
Speaker 7: so the restaurant business. Was there any like pressure that

462
00:21:01,280 --> 00:21:02,560
Speaker 7: this was going to be passed down to you? And

463
00:21:02,680 --> 00:21:04,879
Speaker 7: you didn't go in that direction, like what were some

464
00:21:04,920 --> 00:21:06,600
Speaker 7: of the lessons that you learned watching your dad in

465
00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:08,440
Speaker 7: the business, and you know that succession plan.

466
00:21:08,720 --> 00:21:11,879
Speaker 6: Yeah. I always wanted to go to medical school. So

467
00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:13,720
Speaker 6: when I graduated from QS, it was like, all right,

468
00:21:13,760 --> 00:21:15,439
Speaker 6: I want to get a master's and probably get some

469
00:21:15,480 --> 00:21:18,359
Speaker 6: research support and then you know, I'm going to go

470
00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:20,120
Speaker 6: to medical school. And then my pops was like, well

471
00:21:20,160 --> 00:21:22,840
Speaker 6: I'm not paying. And I'm like, you're not paying, like

472
00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:24,440
Speaker 6: I've always gone to school, Like what do you mean?

473
00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:25,960
Speaker 6: He was like, yeah, but you could, you know, come

474
00:21:25,960 --> 00:21:28,320
Speaker 6: and work in a restaurant, take it over. You know,

475
00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:31,439
Speaker 6: I make more than doctors. Like that was his thing, right,

476
00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:33,040
Speaker 6: that I make more than doctor? How much you make

477
00:21:33,080 --> 00:21:34,719
Speaker 6: as a doctor? I tell him, like, well I make

478
00:21:34,760 --> 00:21:36,840
Speaker 6: more than that, Like you know, it was his thing

479
00:21:36,880 --> 00:21:38,920
Speaker 6: about saying like he makes more than like we should

480
00:21:38,960 --> 00:21:42,520
Speaker 6: just own our own business. It didn't make sense, and

481
00:21:42,880 --> 00:21:44,840
Speaker 6: you know that's what we clashed because I just didn't

482
00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:46,919
Speaker 6: understand at that time. All I wanted to do was

483
00:21:46,920 --> 00:21:49,240
Speaker 6: be a doctor. So he kicked me out. He kicked

484
00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:51,439
Speaker 6: me out of his crib. Yeah, I think I was

485
00:21:51,480 --> 00:21:53,880
Speaker 6: twenty two, Like you know how I think twenty two

486
00:21:53,880 --> 00:21:55,399
Speaker 6: He's like, you're a grown man now, you know you

487
00:21:55,480 --> 00:21:58,200
Speaker 6: got three months. I'm like three months. I'm like, I

488
00:21:58,280 --> 00:22:00,560
Speaker 6: had cool, no problem. It took me like four five.

489
00:22:01,240 --> 00:22:04,119
Speaker 6: But that's when I end up moving to Queens. I

490
00:22:04,119 --> 00:22:07,120
Speaker 6: think you used to be a millio's financial.

491
00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:12,320
Speaker 4: Ad me a million oh from the fraternity. That's my brother,

492
00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:15,040
Speaker 4: believe Sparks.

493
00:22:16,280 --> 00:22:18,520
Speaker 6: He was actually he was actually my roommate when I

494
00:22:18,560 --> 00:22:22,640
Speaker 6: moved out actually back then. So yeah, there's pressure always

495
00:22:23,040 --> 00:22:24,879
Speaker 6: to kind of take over the business. I mean I

496
00:22:25,960 --> 00:22:28,080
Speaker 6: cook as well him and I. That's way we bond

497
00:22:28,160 --> 00:22:30,639
Speaker 6: because you know, in my family, like the men always

498
00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:33,399
Speaker 6: cooked Thanksgiving as far back as I know, we make

499
00:22:33,440 --> 00:22:36,159
Speaker 6: Sunday breakfast, you know, for my family. So it was

500
00:22:36,200 --> 00:22:38,800
Speaker 6: like he wanted me to do that, and you know,

501
00:22:38,880 --> 00:22:40,680
Speaker 6: I just needed to kind of like find my way

502
00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:42,960
Speaker 6: to it or find my way around doing what I

503
00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:44,720
Speaker 6: wanted to do at the time. And I think just

504
00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:46,680
Speaker 6: kind of even moving out was like the best decision

505
00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:47,400
Speaker 6: for our relationship.

506
00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:51,400
Speaker 4: So let's fast forward this situation back to the festival.

507
00:22:51,480 --> 00:22:54,720
Speaker 4: So the first thing you do is not successful, correct,

508
00:22:54,920 --> 00:22:59,480
Speaker 4: You throw a party in Ghana and it doesn't work out. Yeah,

509
00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:04,480
Speaker 4: what makes you want to restructure and go forward, and

510
00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:07,520
Speaker 4: when do you actually become successful with the festival.

511
00:23:07,800 --> 00:23:09,840
Speaker 6: There was no purpose behind the party at the time

512
00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:11,399
Speaker 6: when we threw it. It was just really just to

513
00:23:11,480 --> 00:23:14,520
Speaker 6: kind of like throw a turn up just because. And

514
00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:19,119
Speaker 6: I think that I realized that very quickly, right, you know.

515
00:23:19,800 --> 00:23:22,200
Speaker 6: And you know, one thing, I because I did clinical

516
00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:24,760
Speaker 6: research for a long time, So failure doesn't mean, you know,

517
00:23:24,960 --> 00:23:27,120
Speaker 6: it doesn't mean that you can't like grow and learn

518
00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:30,040
Speaker 6: lessons from it. You know, even in research, when the

519
00:23:30,119 --> 00:23:31,960
Speaker 6: research fails, they write a paper about it. And I

520
00:23:31,960 --> 00:23:35,600
Speaker 6: think that for me it was just kind of like understanding, like, look,

521
00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:38,560
Speaker 6: we didn't have a full understanding of what we were

522
00:23:38,600 --> 00:23:41,000
Speaker 6: trying to do. There was no purpose behind it. And

523
00:23:41,040 --> 00:23:42,960
Speaker 6: in that I also saw a purpose because I saw

524
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:45,160
Speaker 6: that there were young artists that were doing amazing work

525
00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:48,000
Speaker 6: that also performed. Even though they weren't that many people there,

526
00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:50,119
Speaker 6: they were willing to perform and they killed it with

527
00:23:50,200 --> 00:23:52,199
Speaker 6: so much energy. I thought that they did needed to

528
00:23:52,200 --> 00:23:56,040
Speaker 6: be something for them around the same time. You know,

529
00:23:56,080 --> 00:23:58,679
Speaker 6: it's coincidental, I think the way things work for me.

530
00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:01,960
Speaker 6: When I came back, my dad was looking to open

531
00:24:02,040 --> 00:24:05,600
Speaker 6: up his restaurant in Harlem, So we have a second

532
00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:09,320
Speaker 6: location in Harlem, and he's like, you know, I've always

533
00:24:09,320 --> 00:24:11,920
Speaker 6: had the taxi drivers because he opened in the early eighties,

534
00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:14,280
Speaker 6: you know, so taxi drivers at the time, a lot

535
00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:16,520
Speaker 6: of them didn't have their wives in America. So they

536
00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:18,080
Speaker 6: will come and they'll buy a bulk and they will

537
00:24:18,119 --> 00:24:19,840
Speaker 6: have some for their fridge. It's like, I've always had

538
00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:21,919
Speaker 6: that community. But we want to get some of the

539
00:24:21,960 --> 00:24:24,399
Speaker 6: young crowd that are now looking to eat African food,

540
00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:26,679
Speaker 6: looking to tragic off and things of that nature. So

541
00:24:26,720 --> 00:24:28,639
Speaker 6: what can you do? You throw parties, like can you

542
00:24:28,680 --> 00:24:30,919
Speaker 6: bring some of the energy here? So I wanted to

543
00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:34,480
Speaker 6: do a food festival. That's how the proposals started to

544
00:24:34,520 --> 00:24:37,439
Speaker 6: come into my head for what will become Afria Chilling

545
00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:40,080
Speaker 6: later on that for future and you know, I kind

546
00:24:40,080 --> 00:24:42,160
Speaker 6: of married all of those. It took me about two

547
00:24:42,160 --> 00:24:43,720
Speaker 6: and a half years, three years to kind of just

548
00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:46,680
Speaker 6: kind of perfect it into what will become the festival.

549
00:24:47,119 --> 00:24:51,080
Speaker 6: And by the time I started doing the research, I

550
00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:53,119
Speaker 6: just couldn't afford it in America. I was like, yo, this,

551
00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:55,960
Speaker 6: I'm not going into that already OQS money, I'm not

552
00:24:56,040 --> 00:24:58,840
Speaker 6: doing that. So you know, I talk to my partner

553
00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:00,399
Speaker 6: about it. It was like, you know, let's try and Ghana.

554
00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:02,520
Speaker 6: Everybody's coming and this could be opportunity for us to

555
00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:06,399
Speaker 6: bring people back, you know. And then you know, I

556
00:25:06,440 --> 00:25:08,200
Speaker 6: told them like that, I have always had a venue

557
00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:10,080
Speaker 6: in my mind in Ghana that I wanted to use,

558
00:25:10,600 --> 00:25:14,080
Speaker 6: and it's called the Akra Polo Club. It's a very

559
00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:19,320
Speaker 6: distinguished venue, like real wretch akrah our old money. They

560
00:25:19,359 --> 00:25:21,920
Speaker 6: tend to congregate there, but it's a very beautiful when

561
00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:24,320
Speaker 6: you land in Ghana. It's one of the first things

562
00:25:24,320 --> 00:25:27,840
Speaker 6: you see as you're coming in and it's so beautiful.

563
00:25:27,880 --> 00:25:30,400
Speaker 6: So I was like, I want it there, and literally

564
00:25:30,520 --> 00:25:31,640
Speaker 6: he was like, you want it there?

565
00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:31,920
Speaker 5: Cool.

566
00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:34,000
Speaker 6: He called me back in two hours it's booked and

567
00:25:34,119 --> 00:25:36,920
Speaker 6: I was like April twenty seventeen and then we had

568
00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:39,080
Speaker 6: like about seven to eight months to plan. Will become

569
00:25:39,119 --> 00:25:40,240
Speaker 6: the first one.

570
00:25:40,359 --> 00:25:44,119
Speaker 7: The inspiration from others drives us forward. Their resilience pushes

571
00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:47,719
Speaker 7: us to excel, and their path navigates the way towards freedom.

572
00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:52,040
Speaker 7: Ford is proud to celebrate Black History not just this month,

573
00:25:52,240 --> 00:25:55,520
Speaker 7: but year round. They're committed to being the fuel for change,

574
00:25:55,600 --> 00:26:00,879
Speaker 7: supporting Ford Fund program centered around economic, educational, and empowerment

575
00:26:00,880 --> 00:26:05,080
Speaker 7: opportunities for our communities to continue creating the future. Learn

576
00:26:05,160 --> 00:26:10,240
Speaker 7: more at fordfund dot org. Built Ford Proud and.

577
00:26:10,480 --> 00:26:13,000
Speaker 6: It was pretty successful. At the time, we didn't we're

578
00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:14,879
Speaker 6: not throwing a festival, so we were just trying to

579
00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:17,160
Speaker 6: throw a party, you know, we could get our minds

580
00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:20,280
Speaker 6: around a day party festival. We knew that we wanted

581
00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:22,880
Speaker 6: the elements of activation. I don't know if you guys

582
00:26:22,920 --> 00:26:26,360
Speaker 6: remember twenty seventeen there was that issue in Libya where

583
00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:32,360
Speaker 6: they had enslaved people. So after he died, they had

584
00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:36,320
Speaker 6: like slavery with black people in Libya. So we had

585
00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:40,840
Speaker 6: this non artist's name is Okunta and Ghana. We did

586
00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:44,560
Speaker 6: an installation, so that was our first ever installation from

587
00:26:44,600 --> 00:26:46,800
Speaker 6: that festival. And then we have vendors. We knew that

588
00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:50,159
Speaker 6: if we could stimulate the local businesses or individuals who

589
00:26:50,200 --> 00:26:53,280
Speaker 6: wanted to start business and Ghana to vend and create opportunities,

590
00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:55,919
Speaker 6: that that would also help us bring out the people.

591
00:26:56,320 --> 00:26:59,240
Speaker 6: We had thirty vendors that year. Jamison was the only

592
00:26:59,280 --> 00:27:01,320
Speaker 6: partner that was to take a someone. We were brand new.

593
00:27:01,359 --> 00:27:03,760
Speaker 6: Nobody really believed in what we were trying to do,

594
00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:05,760
Speaker 6: so we really had to put our own money up.

595
00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:07,760
Speaker 6: So we put our own money up and we were

596
00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:10,080
Speaker 6: shooting for twenty five hundred people, but we ended up

597
00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:11,320
Speaker 6: doing forty six hundred people.

598
00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:13,679
Speaker 5: How cast intensive is this right?

599
00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:16,200
Speaker 7: And you said it was April you came up with it,

600
00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:19,440
Speaker 7: obviously you got seven months. What's happening in between seven months?

601
00:27:19,600 --> 00:27:21,800
Speaker 7: You're like, is it you and your partner finding the

602
00:27:21,840 --> 00:27:25,000
Speaker 7: sponsors going back and forth to Ghana or a cry

603
00:27:25,119 --> 00:27:27,000
Speaker 7: specifically like what's happening?

604
00:27:27,320 --> 00:27:29,280
Speaker 6: Yeah, So at the time, I wasn't going back and

605
00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:31,399
Speaker 6: forth to GNA. So the one thing I did know

606
00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:33,800
Speaker 6: from research was like my project management skills, So how

607
00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:35,199
Speaker 6: to like say, all right, this is the date that

608
00:27:35,240 --> 00:27:37,159
Speaker 6: we started, this is the date that we're ending. Now

609
00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:39,040
Speaker 6: let's figure out everything in the middle to kind of

610
00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:41,880
Speaker 6: project managing it. At that time, I was the one

611
00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:44,000
Speaker 6: going out looking for sponsorship, but I didn't understand the

612
00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:46,919
Speaker 6: language of sponsors. So all I knew was that I

613
00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:48,560
Speaker 6: have this event, can you put your logo, I'll put

614
00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:50,359
Speaker 6: your logo here, put your logo here. But I didn't

615
00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:54,800
Speaker 6: realize that, you know, it was about mutual beneficial relationships.

616
00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:56,440
Speaker 6: How to kind of bring out the value and their

617
00:27:56,440 --> 00:27:59,560
Speaker 6: priorities versus the values and our priorities. So I didn't

618
00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:01,800
Speaker 6: understand that. Yeah, so we was like feeling. We didn't

619
00:28:01,880 --> 00:28:04,280
Speaker 6: understand why we were feeling because we were selling tickets.

620
00:28:05,359 --> 00:28:07,000
Speaker 6: But the one thing that we had that was on

621
00:28:07,040 --> 00:28:09,280
Speaker 6: our side was that we were really good at We

622
00:28:09,359 --> 00:28:11,399
Speaker 6: had some marketing ideas that we knew was Shock the

623
00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:15,520
Speaker 6: Shock Ghana. Like, we put up a billboard for the event,

624
00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:18,360
Speaker 6: and people were like, who are these guys? Like, why'all

625
00:28:18,359 --> 00:28:20,840
Speaker 6: think y'all could put up a billboard, like you know,

626
00:28:20,880 --> 00:28:23,240
Speaker 6: and then the name was afro Cella, so they, you know,

627
00:28:23,240 --> 00:28:26,199
Speaker 6: they roasted us all over the gram, all over Twitter,

628
00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:28,720
Speaker 6: so that what they say, you know, like who you

629
00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:31,600
Speaker 6: guys thinking afro Cella is cochella? You know, they said

630
00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:33,960
Speaker 6: a whole bunch of stuff like that at the time,

631
00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:37,520
Speaker 6: and you know, were just like, you know, we know

632
00:28:37,560 --> 00:28:40,160
Speaker 6: what we're doing when we put the name together Afroachella.

633
00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:43,480
Speaker 6: Really we were trying to like communicate echoes of African

634
00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:45,840
Speaker 6: sound because you know, the chella just is a real

635
00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:49,960
Speaker 6: for us. It's a Latin word for sounds, so we

636
00:28:49,960 --> 00:28:52,320
Speaker 6: were trying to say African sounds. But it didn't really

637
00:28:52,800 --> 00:28:55,680
Speaker 6: connect with people like that. They thought something else. So

638
00:28:55,800 --> 00:28:59,240
Speaker 6: they were roasting us on Twitter like twit black Twitter,

639
00:28:59,560 --> 00:29:06,160
Speaker 6: Donna's America Gone on Twitter was was was unrelentingt to us,

640
00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:08,240
Speaker 6: you know, but honestly it made us better because it

641
00:29:08,320 --> 00:29:11,080
Speaker 6: kept us on our toes right. And when we put

642
00:29:11,120 --> 00:29:14,680
Speaker 6: up the billboard all of that, the momentum came. People

643
00:29:14,720 --> 00:29:17,800
Speaker 6: would tell us they're not going, They're not going, And

644
00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:20,520
Speaker 6: then we sold I think three thousand tickets and I'm like, yo,

645
00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:21,800
Speaker 6: I don't think we got the space. We need to

646
00:29:21,800 --> 00:29:22,560
Speaker 6: stop selling tickets.

647
00:29:22,560 --> 00:29:24,640
Speaker 4: Where you selling tickets in Ghana or people from America.

648
00:29:24,680 --> 00:29:27,080
Speaker 6: We were selling tickets all over, so we were surprised

649
00:29:27,080 --> 00:29:29,440
Speaker 6: that year we still had about thirty percent of people

650
00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:34,320
Speaker 6: coming in from America, America, afric from Africa.

651
00:29:34,360 --> 00:29:36,600
Speaker 5: From Africa is the talent involved though.

652
00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:38,960
Speaker 6: It was just like at the time, we had some

653
00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:42,240
Speaker 6: talent that are now some of the biggest out of Donna.

654
00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:45,960
Speaker 6: So we had King Promise, we had Quasi Arthur, Christy

655
00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:48,640
Speaker 6: Arthur want to be to Award. King Promise has done

656
00:29:48,680 --> 00:29:50,760
Speaker 6: a bunch of songs with kids. He's doing his thing.

657
00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:53,200
Speaker 6: And we had this one young lady who was very

658
00:29:53,200 --> 00:29:56,080
Speaker 6: promising at the time. Her name was Ebony. We were

659
00:29:56,120 --> 00:29:58,800
Speaker 6: her last show. She actually passed a year after, but

660
00:29:58,920 --> 00:30:01,680
Speaker 6: she was dance so reggae artists and she was like

661
00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:03,840
Speaker 6: really at the top of her game. She was our

662
00:30:03,840 --> 00:30:07,440
Speaker 6: biggest asset. But we all we used all rising stars, right,

663
00:30:07,480 --> 00:30:08,840
Speaker 6: so we knew that these people were going to be

664
00:30:08,840 --> 00:30:11,080
Speaker 6: the next up, but we could afford them because we

665
00:30:11,080 --> 00:30:13,000
Speaker 6: didn't really have the budget at the time to kind

666
00:30:13,040 --> 00:30:15,520
Speaker 6: of get some of the big acts. And I think

667
00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:19,560
Speaker 6: in hindsight that might have been our biggest, our biggest win,

668
00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:22,360
Speaker 6: because it kind of took away the focus from just

669
00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:24,480
Speaker 6: the talent that on the stage to kind of the

670
00:30:24,520 --> 00:30:27,600
Speaker 6: experience and people loved it. And you know, people have

671
00:30:27,760 --> 00:30:31,360
Speaker 6: traveled for just that one day in twenty seventeen. We

672
00:30:31,400 --> 00:30:33,280
Speaker 6: have a video on our phone. I said, now, I

673
00:30:33,360 --> 00:30:35,760
Speaker 6: traveled here for one day, all the way from Denmark

674
00:30:35,800 --> 00:30:37,920
Speaker 6: for one day just to come to this, and I

675
00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:40,880
Speaker 6: thought that was very, very beautiful to see that people

676
00:30:40,880 --> 00:30:43,680
Speaker 6: believed in what we were doing. So we ended up

677
00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:45,880
Speaker 6: stopped ticket sales because we were afraid that we were

678
00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:48,320
Speaker 6: going to oversell and we weren't going to be able

679
00:30:48,360 --> 00:30:51,480
Speaker 6: to deliver. But my partners and I went back and forth,

680
00:30:51,520 --> 00:30:53,680
Speaker 6: but we ended up capping at forty six hundred people

681
00:30:53,720 --> 00:30:56,280
Speaker 6: on the first year, and we had so many ideas

682
00:30:56,280 --> 00:30:57,640
Speaker 6: that we didn't get to execute how much with the

683
00:30:57,680 --> 00:30:58,360
Speaker 6: ticket prices.

684
00:30:58,760 --> 00:30:59,120
Speaker 5: I think the.

685
00:30:59,120 --> 00:31:01,920
Speaker 6: Ticket prices then was like forty dollars, forty dollars. I

686
00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:05,120
Speaker 6: think forty dollars was VDP and I think twenty five

687
00:31:05,160 --> 00:31:06,600
Speaker 6: dollars or something like that. I don't, I don't, I

688
00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:08,520
Speaker 6: don't really remember. That's a long time ago. Actually, I

689
00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:10,640
Speaker 6: shouldn't know that. I'm gonna go for I got I

690
00:31:10,720 --> 00:31:12,160
Speaker 6: gotta go research that. But I think it was like

691
00:31:12,200 --> 00:31:14,800
Speaker 6: forty dollars maximum. We weren't trying to charge too much,

692
00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:19,160
Speaker 6: you know, we had Jamison supporting us, and it was successful.

693
00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:20,040
Speaker 5: It was good.

694
00:31:20,120 --> 00:31:22,560
Speaker 6: We were able to close it no issues, and we

695
00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:25,280
Speaker 6: knew we had something and we knew we had ideas

696
00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:28,720
Speaker 6: that we wanted to execute. So the next year we expanded.

697
00:31:28,760 --> 00:31:31,280
Speaker 6: We went to a stadium, and then we got roasted

698
00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:35,800
Speaker 6: again because we had used a venue called Elwak Stadium

699
00:31:35,880 --> 00:31:38,840
Speaker 6: that was a rundown park that people went to go train,

700
00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:41,640
Speaker 6: play soccer on, or run around, but nobody really did

701
00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:43,800
Speaker 6: events there. It was a stadium, but we had a

702
00:31:43,880 --> 00:31:46,160
Speaker 6: vision that we could recreate this to make this look

703
00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:51,560
Speaker 6: something completely different. We got roasted again, But it was

704
00:31:51,600 --> 00:31:53,840
Speaker 6: a great year in twenty eighteen because we went from

705
00:31:54,080 --> 00:31:57,160
Speaker 6: forty six hundred to twelve thousand, five hundred people and

706
00:31:57,240 --> 00:31:59,480
Speaker 6: we had bigger artists that year. We had stone Boy,

707
00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:02,240
Speaker 6: who is right now going around a circuit just signed

708
00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:05,560
Speaker 6: a deaf jam, doing amazing work. He was a headliner

709
00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:08,719
Speaker 6: that year. We also always have like an old school

710
00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:13,040
Speaker 6: legacy act people that our parents probably saw but none

711
00:32:13,080 --> 00:32:16,600
Speaker 6: of us saw it, and performing, so we wanted to

712
00:32:16,640 --> 00:32:18,520
Speaker 6: kind of bring all of that element. That was also

713
00:32:18,560 --> 00:32:21,680
Speaker 6: the first year that a lot of black Hollywood started

714
00:32:21,720 --> 00:32:24,719
Speaker 6: to come to the events, So we had Jackieyaina, we

715
00:32:24,800 --> 00:32:28,240
Speaker 6: had Boris Kujo and his wife and some of the others.

716
00:32:28,680 --> 00:32:31,160
Speaker 6: Ebro I think was there in twenty eighteen as well

717
00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:35,040
Speaker 6: for our first big one, So we went from forty

718
00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:38,640
Speaker 6: five hundred forty six hundred to twelve thousand, five hundred.

719
00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:40,640
Speaker 6: I don't think we were even prepare for that scale

720
00:32:40,920 --> 00:32:43,720
Speaker 6: as far as the team, as far as just that structure,

721
00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:46,880
Speaker 6: or even understanding how to manage the festival.

722
00:32:47,080 --> 00:32:49,040
Speaker 5: How was the marketing right? Because you went that that

723
00:32:49,120 --> 00:32:49,560
Speaker 5: takes a lot.

724
00:32:49,600 --> 00:32:52,840
Speaker 7: You go from Fourenty to twelve, almost thirteen thousand and

725
00:32:52,880 --> 00:32:56,160
Speaker 7: now you're getting I guess you're getting black Americans. I

726
00:32:56,160 --> 00:32:58,680
Speaker 7: guess the Lebretans to come. What's the marketing or is

727
00:32:58,720 --> 00:33:00,960
Speaker 7: It was just like people. It was word of mouth.

728
00:33:01,040 --> 00:33:02,640
Speaker 6: Yeah, it was word of mouth, and it was like

729
00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:04,480
Speaker 6: you could feel the energy in the city. You knew

730
00:33:04,480 --> 00:33:06,960
Speaker 6: you had to go there. We didn't have any paid

731
00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:10,320
Speaker 6: dollars behind any marketing at that time. We didn't have

732
00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:13,360
Speaker 6: any really marketing experience. We didn't have a marketing person.

733
00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:14,520
Speaker 5: Really.

734
00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:17,560
Speaker 6: What our model was like a payer forward method. You know,

735
00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:19,840
Speaker 6: if you went more often than not, you brought like

736
00:33:19,880 --> 00:33:22,200
Speaker 6: two more people with you, and that kind of helped

737
00:33:22,280 --> 00:33:26,040
Speaker 6: us grow very organically. And everyone that couldn't go the

738
00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:28,920
Speaker 6: first year had that so much fun that they wanted

739
00:33:28,920 --> 00:33:32,000
Speaker 6: to come the second year. And then twenty eighteen obviously

740
00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:35,120
Speaker 6: it went viral. It hit trade room and everybody saw

741
00:33:35,120 --> 00:33:38,280
Speaker 6: all the celebs dancing with you know, with Pope folks.

742
00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:42,560
Speaker 6: And that year some more Americans came in and their

743
00:33:42,680 --> 00:33:46,400
Speaker 6: post went viral because people couldn't understand how like these

744
00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:48,720
Speaker 6: people were just having such a great time. It was

745
00:33:48,760 --> 00:33:51,120
Speaker 6: that year that Ghana announced the year of return in

746
00:33:51,200 --> 00:33:53,960
Speaker 6: twenty eighteen, and that would be twenty nineteen.

747
00:33:54,400 --> 00:33:56,000
Speaker 4: The year of return. People that don't know what that is.

748
00:33:56,160 --> 00:33:59,560
Speaker 6: Yeah, so the year return marked four hundred years since

749
00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:03,040
Speaker 6: the first ever slave ships moved from Jamestown across to Jamestown,

750
00:34:03,120 --> 00:34:05,240
Speaker 6: Virginia and Ghana.

751
00:34:05,960 --> 00:34:10,080
Speaker 4: It's called Jamestown Jamestown, a crow Jamestown and craw. Is

752
00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:13,480
Speaker 4: that is that for a reason? No, it's going from

753
00:34:13,520 --> 00:34:15,919
Speaker 4: Jamestown Jamestown. Is that just a coincidence or is that.

754
00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:18,040
Speaker 6: It's not a coincidence. I think it was named by

755
00:34:18,040 --> 00:34:19,359
Speaker 6: the fort. The fort that was.

756
00:34:19,320 --> 00:34:21,960
Speaker 4: Being like they purposely like, this is Jamestown here and

757
00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:24,200
Speaker 4: it's going to Jamestown here. Correct, the same.

758
00:34:24,320 --> 00:34:26,920
Speaker 6: Correct, the same fort travel batter the same to be

759
00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:29,879
Speaker 6: called the same thing exactly. Maybe that might be the case,

760
00:34:29,960 --> 00:34:31,960
Speaker 6: but I gotta get back to it now. I don't know,

761
00:34:32,280 --> 00:34:35,120
Speaker 6: but I would say that that was four hundred years

762
00:34:35,120 --> 00:34:38,359
Speaker 6: since that first ever migration, the first lag has ever

763
00:34:38,440 --> 00:34:41,880
Speaker 6: left Ghana, like the sixteen sixteen nineteen project, right, So

764
00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:44,360
Speaker 6: Ghana proclaimed that four hundred years as the year of return.

765
00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:47,280
Speaker 6: When you go to Ghana and you visit the slave castles,

766
00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:49,600
Speaker 6: you'll see this door of no return, and it was

767
00:34:49,640 --> 00:34:53,160
Speaker 6: the last door that slaves went through to be able

768
00:34:53,200 --> 00:34:55,320
Speaker 6: to kind of see their lives in Ghana. That was

769
00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:56,960
Speaker 6: the last time when you went through that gate, you

770
00:34:57,040 --> 00:34:59,040
Speaker 6: were just going into slaver why you were never coming back.

771
00:34:59,640 --> 00:35:02,720
Speaker 6: So the idea was for us to kind of open

772
00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:05,799
Speaker 6: the door for people to return. And what they did was,

773
00:35:06,640 --> 00:35:10,160
Speaker 6: I guess one of the first ever slaves that moved

774
00:35:10,239 --> 00:35:13,840
Speaker 6: from Ghana, individuals that became slaves that were enslaved that

775
00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:16,840
Speaker 6: moved from Ghana was returned through the door and was

776
00:35:16,880 --> 00:35:20,440
Speaker 6: buried in the castle and they marked it as he

777
00:35:20,480 --> 00:35:24,160
Speaker 6: ever turned. So Ghana started using as opportunity to invite

778
00:35:24,360 --> 00:35:27,960
Speaker 6: descendants of enslaved people to come back to Ghana and

779
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:31,000
Speaker 6: be able to kind of seek residency, to be able

780
00:35:31,040 --> 00:35:33,399
Speaker 6: to engage with the people, and to open up really

781
00:35:33,440 --> 00:35:37,680
Speaker 6: dialogue between the diaspora and Ghana specifically, and honestly that

782
00:35:37,719 --> 00:35:39,759
Speaker 6: has opened the door for many other countries to also

783
00:35:39,920 --> 00:35:43,160
Speaker 6: visit to invite people back as well. It was an

784
00:35:43,200 --> 00:35:46,480
Speaker 6: amazing experience because you will walk down the block and

785
00:35:46,520 --> 00:35:48,760
Speaker 6: you will see somebody that you had no idea whatever

786
00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:50,960
Speaker 6: be in Ghana. An example of that is my partner

787
00:35:51,040 --> 00:35:54,400
Speaker 6: Kenny was outside the festival and he ran into the

788
00:35:54,440 --> 00:35:56,680
Speaker 6: third grade teacher and she asked him what was he doing.

789
00:35:56,920 --> 00:36:00,400
Speaker 6: He's like, well, this is my event. That me that

790
00:36:00,520 --> 00:36:03,880
Speaker 6: was beautiful people that I never imagined in my life

791
00:36:04,160 --> 00:36:07,760
Speaker 6: that I went to high school with, that came to Ghana,

792
00:36:08,320 --> 00:36:11,239
Speaker 6: that would be in Ghana shocked me because I just

793
00:36:11,360 --> 00:36:15,080
Speaker 6: never ever thought that they would be in Ghana, or

794
00:36:15,200 --> 00:36:18,040
Speaker 6: enjoy Ghana or even consider it. So it was an

795
00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:21,160
Speaker 6: amazing year because that year alone, Ghana gave over a

796
00:36:21,239 --> 00:36:26,440
Speaker 6: million of visas out and granted a million plus visas.

797
00:36:26,840 --> 00:36:29,600
Speaker 6: And to put that in context, Ghana normally too about

798
00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:31,960
Speaker 6: one hundred and fifty thousand a year, so to do

799
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:34,719
Speaker 6: a million visas and that year was a very big

800
00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:37,239
Speaker 6: deal and sixteen percent of that was because of our

801
00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:38,040
Speaker 6: festival as well.

802
00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:41,160
Speaker 7: So there's a part there that kind of gets overlooked.

803
00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:43,960
Speaker 7: It's like, you guys know you have something special. Yeah,

804
00:36:44,320 --> 00:36:46,799
Speaker 7: but the government must know you have something special as well.

805
00:36:47,120 --> 00:36:49,239
Speaker 7: At what point do they say, we need to figure

806
00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:50,879
Speaker 7: out who these guys are, we need to work with them,

807
00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:53,520
Speaker 7: let's work together, because I know at some point you

808
00:36:53,640 --> 00:36:56,040
Speaker 7: become like the ambassador of tourism.

809
00:36:56,120 --> 00:36:59,319
Speaker 6: Yeah, So it became in twenty nineteen was the first

810
00:36:59,400 --> 00:37:02,160
Speaker 6: year we had a partnership official partnership with Gano Tourism

811
00:37:02,160 --> 00:37:07,480
Speaker 6: Authority that granted us opportunities to open up these own arrivals,

812
00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:13,080
Speaker 6: gave us opportunities to kind of push through policies things

813
00:37:13,080 --> 00:37:15,880
Speaker 6: that nature to kind of reduce the kind of issues

814
00:37:15,920 --> 00:37:18,360
Speaker 6: that people were facing and get into Ghana, whether it

815
00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:23,239
Speaker 6: was you know, immigration issues, whether it was like you know,

816
00:37:23,280 --> 00:37:25,319
Speaker 6: you had to have vaccine cards, those kind of things

817
00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:27,839
Speaker 6: we were able to kind of like clear so people

818
00:37:27,880 --> 00:37:30,239
Speaker 6: could not have too many issues or barriers to coming

819
00:37:30,280 --> 00:37:33,920
Speaker 6: into the country as well. Those kind of things were

820
00:37:33,960 --> 00:37:35,160
Speaker 6: some of the things we were able to do in

821
00:37:35,200 --> 00:37:37,799
Speaker 6: the first year. They're also able to help us logistically

822
00:37:37,840 --> 00:37:41,480
Speaker 6: around the country to kind of reduce the amount of

823
00:37:41,520 --> 00:37:44,399
Speaker 6: issues that we were facing with maybe hotel bookings or

824
00:37:44,440 --> 00:37:50,000
Speaker 6: like police escorts or military escorts where necessary, even the venue.

825
00:37:50,440 --> 00:37:53,000
Speaker 6: There's a military venue that we use as well, so

826
00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:55,000
Speaker 6: just kind of navigating that and making sure we have

827
00:37:55,040 --> 00:37:56,400
Speaker 6: all the permits with some of the things that they

828
00:37:56,440 --> 00:37:58,759
Speaker 6: were able to help us. In twenty twenty one, we

829
00:37:58,960 --> 00:38:02,040
Speaker 6: actually became good with baskets to Ghana and then we

830
00:38:02,040 --> 00:38:06,120
Speaker 6: were challenged to bring what twenty thousand people to Donna

831
00:38:06,239 --> 00:38:08,440
Speaker 6: for our festival, and we were able to do that

832
00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:10,879
Speaker 6: and accomplish that. So as of right now, I'm still

833
00:38:10,880 --> 00:38:11,640
Speaker 6: a good willing basket.

834
00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:15,960
Speaker 4: So all right, so you go. And this is similar

835
00:38:15,960 --> 00:38:17,759
Speaker 4: to cause we do a festival calling Best Fest.

836
00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:18,200
Speaker 6: Yeah.

837
00:38:18,239 --> 00:38:19,960
Speaker 4: So the first year we did it, we have like

838
00:38:20,040 --> 00:38:22,640
Speaker 4: four thousand people. In the second year we have fourteen

839
00:38:22,680 --> 00:38:25,520
Speaker 4: thousand people, and now we're looking at twenty thousand for

840
00:38:25,560 --> 00:38:29,240
Speaker 4: this year, the third year. So we know about scaling

841
00:38:29,280 --> 00:38:31,480
Speaker 4: the festival and we know about how challenging it is.

842
00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:36,960
Speaker 4: So let's take this apart booking talent. That's not easy. No,

843
00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:43,120
Speaker 4: talk about that. Talk about booking and talent and the

844
00:38:43,239 --> 00:38:47,160
Speaker 4: rioters and paying on artists and variety of different things

845
00:38:47,200 --> 00:38:48,000
Speaker 4: are coming into that.

846
00:38:48,160 --> 00:38:48,480
Speaker 5: All right.

847
00:38:48,520 --> 00:38:50,680
Speaker 6: So some of the things that we have in place

848
00:38:50,719 --> 00:38:53,120
Speaker 6: in Ghana that is a big asset to us is

849
00:38:53,160 --> 00:38:57,160
Speaker 6: the infrastructure around us. So my partner Kenny manages an

850
00:38:57,320 --> 00:39:02,840
Speaker 6: entire media studio with TV radio, all of that in

851
00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:06,640
Speaker 6: Ghana and we have that. Another partner of ours, BB

852
00:39:06,760 --> 00:39:09,400
Speaker 6: and Z Live, is a creative studio. They also have

853
00:39:09,600 --> 00:39:14,640
Speaker 6: TV station, radio station, newspaper print as well. So as

854
00:39:14,640 --> 00:39:17,520
Speaker 6: far as the structure in a record label. So at

855
00:39:17,560 --> 00:39:22,439
Speaker 6: the time BB and Z was managing Yea as well,

856
00:39:22,480 --> 00:39:24,760
Speaker 6: and they also did tours for Lauren Hill. So actually

857
00:39:24,800 --> 00:39:27,440
Speaker 6: in twenty eighteen, Laura Hill did our first opening party

858
00:39:27,920 --> 00:39:30,120
Speaker 6: for the festival in twenty eighteen, so that that was

859
00:39:30,160 --> 00:39:32,120
Speaker 6: Miss Lauren Hill. She she she really showed love, but

860
00:39:32,239 --> 00:39:36,200
Speaker 6: she was on time. She was on time. She's like

861
00:39:36,239 --> 00:39:39,040
Speaker 6: a big friend of her family. Like in Ghana. Our

862
00:39:39,080 --> 00:39:42,120
Speaker 6: partner Alvin does a lot of work with her around

863
00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:44,719
Speaker 6: bringing an African artists to America and work with her.

864
00:39:44,760 --> 00:39:47,440
Speaker 6: So she did a tour Deasper calling first time. A

865
00:39:47,440 --> 00:39:49,759
Speaker 6: lot of the artists like mister Easy Stone Boy and

866
00:39:49,800 --> 00:39:51,840
Speaker 6: some of these were on the stage. So she always

867
00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:55,120
Speaker 6: showed love to us. So these things that we have

868
00:39:55,200 --> 00:39:57,000
Speaker 6: in place allowed us to be able to do a

869
00:39:57,040 --> 00:39:58,600
Speaker 6: lot of things a lot easier. So we've had the

870
00:39:58,640 --> 00:40:02,520
Speaker 6: same booker since twenty seventeen. Her name is Kadija. She

871
00:40:02,680 --> 00:40:06,120
Speaker 6: works for a record label now, but she has relationships

872
00:40:06,239 --> 00:40:08,880
Speaker 6: with almost all the artists at least in West Africa,

873
00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:11,680
Speaker 6: and that allows us to be able to kind of

874
00:40:11,680 --> 00:40:13,160
Speaker 6: talk to talent and say, hey, look this is what

875
00:40:13,160 --> 00:40:16,440
Speaker 6: we need. The structure of agencies are now coming to

876
00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:19,680
Speaker 6: Africa where some artists are signing with agencies like CAAW.

877
00:40:19,800 --> 00:40:22,239
Speaker 6: I mean things that nature, but on the content. When

878
00:40:22,280 --> 00:40:24,400
Speaker 6: you're on the content that it's like, I don't need

879
00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:26,600
Speaker 6: to go and talk to WSA Europe. I could talk

880
00:40:26,640 --> 00:40:29,080
Speaker 6: to the manager that lives up the block. So she

881
00:40:29,160 --> 00:40:31,560
Speaker 6: has done an amazing job at making sure that we've

882
00:40:31,600 --> 00:40:33,680
Speaker 6: been able to get any artists we want as long

883
00:40:33,719 --> 00:40:35,560
Speaker 6: as our budget suffice this money.

884
00:40:36,120 --> 00:40:38,200
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886
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887
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888
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889
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890
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892
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893
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894
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895
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898
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899
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900
00:41:28,480 --> 00:41:30,919
Speaker 6: And pretty much that's how we've been doing that now.

901
00:41:31,160 --> 00:41:37,640
Speaker 6: You see in Africa, getting the talent to agree to perform.

902
00:41:36,920 --> 00:41:38,040
Speaker 5: Is one job.

903
00:41:38,200 --> 00:41:41,120
Speaker 6: The negative job to perform get them to before late.

904
00:41:41,239 --> 00:41:44,000
Speaker 4: Like we'll discuss a hell she's a legend, but obviously

905
00:41:44,040 --> 00:41:47,320
Speaker 4: she's had issues with being late to shows, but people

906
00:41:47,320 --> 00:41:50,320
Speaker 4: don't like that's a nightmare for a promoter or somebody

907
00:41:50,360 --> 00:41:51,840
Speaker 4: doing Like you think somebody's coming on an eighth, you

908
00:41:51,880 --> 00:41:54,480
Speaker 4: don't come on to eleven, and then people's getting restless

909
00:41:54,480 --> 00:41:58,319
Speaker 4: and they like, I want my money back. So you've

910
00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:00,760
Speaker 4: had issues with artists being late though, right.

911
00:42:00,800 --> 00:42:06,919
Speaker 6: I've had issues not necessarily late, but more so Yeah,

912
00:42:06,920 --> 00:42:08,799
Speaker 6: I guess you could call it late, but more so

913
00:42:08,880 --> 00:42:11,600
Speaker 6: like difficult to deal with, as in maybe we can't

914
00:42:11,600 --> 00:42:14,080
Speaker 6: get their biometric pages to book their flights in time,

915
00:42:14,360 --> 00:42:17,000
Speaker 6: or maybe last minute they want to you know, they

916
00:42:17,080 --> 00:42:18,960
Speaker 6: feel like they are a bigger artist now they want

917
00:42:18,960 --> 00:42:23,360
Speaker 6: more money, or maybe the rider is just like, you know,

918
00:42:23,800 --> 00:42:26,279
Speaker 6: just ridiculous, or maybe they signed a contract and they

919
00:42:26,280 --> 00:42:29,240
Speaker 6: want to chrain. We've had situations where an artist signed

920
00:42:30,320 --> 00:42:33,120
Speaker 6: a contract we paid, they asked for one hundred percent

921
00:42:33,120 --> 00:42:35,880
Speaker 6: of the money up front, which is something we never do.

922
00:42:36,280 --> 00:42:38,400
Speaker 6: But for this particular artist, we knew he was going

923
00:42:38,440 --> 00:42:39,640
Speaker 6: to be the next one. We're like, you know what,

924
00:42:39,719 --> 00:42:41,560
Speaker 6: we'll pay you one hundred percent out of other fee.

925
00:42:42,120 --> 00:42:43,520
Speaker 6: And then, you know, at the time it was just

926
00:42:43,560 --> 00:42:45,360
Speaker 6: five flights. We're like, all right, cool, we could do

927
00:42:45,400 --> 00:42:48,279
Speaker 6: five flights, it's not that bad. And then, you know,

928
00:42:48,800 --> 00:42:50,920
Speaker 6: closer to the show, he's like, yeah, you know, I

929
00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:52,600
Speaker 6: know I said five flights, but you know, if you

930
00:42:52,600 --> 00:42:55,319
Speaker 6: guys can give me the money. No, actually, can you

931
00:42:55,320 --> 00:42:57,920
Speaker 6: guys get us a private jet? And we're like, no,

932
00:42:58,320 --> 00:43:00,000
Speaker 6: we're probably not going to get your private jet. We

933
00:43:00,080 --> 00:43:02,279
Speaker 6: agreed to five flights. It's like, well, can you guys

934
00:43:02,320 --> 00:43:04,360
Speaker 6: give us the money then we'll cover the rest on

935
00:43:04,400 --> 00:43:06,279
Speaker 6: a private jet. It was like, well, it's too late

936
00:43:06,360 --> 00:43:08,520
Speaker 6: because we buy a flight some bulk, so there's no

937
00:43:08,560 --> 00:43:11,759
Speaker 6: way we could get you this get your private jet.

938
00:43:11,840 --> 00:43:14,759
Speaker 6: So in those situations it get dicey because you never

939
00:43:14,800 --> 00:43:17,000
Speaker 6: know whether the artist is going to show or not

940
00:43:17,120 --> 00:43:19,359
Speaker 6: are they going to get on the flight? You know,

941
00:43:19,719 --> 00:43:21,680
Speaker 6: I think that those are some of the difficulties that

942
00:43:21,719 --> 00:43:25,400
Speaker 6: we have faced as far as talents are concerned. You know,

943
00:43:25,480 --> 00:43:29,839
Speaker 6: in Africa, also in Ghana just went through a very

944
00:43:29,840 --> 00:43:33,200
Speaker 6: big inflation process, like where one dollar went up to

945
00:43:33,239 --> 00:43:36,719
Speaker 6: about fifteen ghand of cities for a reference, when we

946
00:43:36,760 --> 00:43:40,279
Speaker 6: started the festival in twenty seventeen, one dollar was three

947
00:43:40,320 --> 00:43:44,160
Speaker 6: Ghana cities and even in twenty nineteen one dollar was

948
00:43:44,200 --> 00:43:47,279
Speaker 6: about maybe four ghan of cities at maximum. So in

949
00:43:47,280 --> 00:43:51,879
Speaker 6: twenty twenty two, for one dollar to be at twelve thirteen, fourteen, fifteen,

950
00:43:52,040 --> 00:43:55,719
Speaker 6: you can imagine like the cost of everything just kind

951
00:43:55,719 --> 00:43:59,719
Speaker 6: of went crazy across the board. So it was it

952
00:43:59,760 --> 00:44:02,160
Speaker 6: was very difficult for us to kind of like navigate

953
00:44:02,320 --> 00:44:04,560
Speaker 6: flights and all of that stuff as well. So when

954
00:44:04,640 --> 00:44:08,000
Speaker 6: artists are charging what they're charging now, right, last year

955
00:44:08,040 --> 00:44:10,440
Speaker 6: we had burna Boy, so you can already know what

956
00:44:10,520 --> 00:44:12,759
Speaker 6: he called y last year. Yeah, burna Boy last year?

957
00:44:12,800 --> 00:44:16,319
Speaker 6: How was he charged a lot of money? I don't know,

958
00:44:17,120 --> 00:44:19,320
Speaker 6: it's close. It's close, I mean, you know, it's close,

959
00:44:19,480 --> 00:44:22,160
Speaker 6: like it's very close to that. The year before we

960
00:44:22,160 --> 00:44:24,840
Speaker 6: have whiz Kid so you you know, like these rates

961
00:44:24,880 --> 00:44:28,080
Speaker 6: are not like cheap, They're not cheap. And it's like

962
00:44:28,800 --> 00:44:32,920
Speaker 6: fifteen twenty thirty artists on on on the billow some

963
00:44:32,960 --> 00:44:35,080
Speaker 6: of them, some of them show love. So we have

964
00:44:35,320 --> 00:44:37,960
Speaker 6: very good relationships with a lot of artists, but you

965
00:44:38,000 --> 00:44:40,640
Speaker 6: know a lot of artists because now you have like

966
00:44:40,680 --> 00:44:43,040
Speaker 6: a live nation that's going to give you thirty shows.

967
00:44:43,480 --> 00:44:46,040
Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying, it's you're not incentivized to

968
00:44:46,680 --> 00:44:48,080
Speaker 6: kind of say you know what, like you know what

969
00:44:48,080 --> 00:44:48,920
Speaker 6: I mean, you.

970
00:44:48,880 --> 00:44:50,960
Speaker 4: Know what festivals, festivals messed up.

971
00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:55,200
Speaker 5: So we This episode is brought to you by P

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985
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1004
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Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child

1005
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1006
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1008
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1009
00:47:03,640 --> 00:47:04,080
Speaker 1: Donald J.

1010
00:47:04,160 --> 00:47:07,400
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1011
00:47:07,239 --> 00:47:12,000
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1012
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1013
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1014
00:47:18,960 --> 00:47:22,800
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1015
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1016
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1017
00:47:28,000 --> 00:47:31,040
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1018
00:47:31,120 --> 00:47:34,480
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1019
00:47:34,600 --> 00:47:36,600
Speaker 2: what's right. Leave now.

1020
00:47:36,960 --> 00:47:41,720
Speaker 1: Under President Trump America's laws, border and families will be protected.

1021
00:47:41,840 --> 00:47:43,960
Speaker 3: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security.

1022
00:47:44,040 --> 00:47:46,400
Speaker 4: Do we book artists for a variety of different things.

1023
00:47:48,280 --> 00:47:50,560
Speaker 4: In my opinion, and I've been doing some market research

1024
00:47:50,600 --> 00:47:54,040
Speaker 4: on this, festivals have messed up pricing for artists because

1025
00:47:54,120 --> 00:47:57,240
Speaker 4: now there's only artists there on many festivals in America

1026
00:47:57,280 --> 00:47:59,399
Speaker 4: I'm talking about, like, yeah, the only Europe too. Yeah,

1027
00:47:59,400 --> 00:48:02,920
Speaker 4: there's many fALS that all these artists are getting paid

1028
00:48:03,280 --> 00:48:07,640
Speaker 4: crazy amount of money, more money than they traditionally should

1029
00:48:07,719 --> 00:48:10,560
Speaker 4: get or they even deserve to be completely honest with

1030
00:48:10,600 --> 00:48:16,719
Speaker 4: you about and now that that's over inflating their overinflating

1031
00:48:16,719 --> 00:48:17,200
Speaker 4: the market.

1032
00:48:17,600 --> 00:48:19,960
Speaker 6: Yeah. So it's like it's really about competition.

1033
00:48:20,080 --> 00:48:20,239
Speaker 5: Right.

1034
00:48:20,280 --> 00:48:24,040
Speaker 6: So if I if you are really worked three hundred,

1035
00:48:24,080 --> 00:48:26,360
Speaker 6: but you know this guy over here is costing you

1036
00:48:26,560 --> 00:48:29,440
Speaker 6: seven hundred, it is giving you seven hundred, You're going

1037
00:48:29,480 --> 00:48:30,960
Speaker 6: to want to take that seven hundred. It doesn't matter

1038
00:48:31,040 --> 00:48:33,279
Speaker 6: what relationship you have with me. You're going to come

1039
00:48:33,320 --> 00:48:34,920
Speaker 6: back and say, Yo, I know you offering three hundred,

1040
00:48:34,920 --> 00:48:36,839
Speaker 6: that's my rape, but this guy's offering me seven hundred.

1041
00:48:36,840 --> 00:48:37,480
Speaker 5: I got to take that.

1042
00:48:37,960 --> 00:48:39,880
Speaker 6: And a lot of that. We were dealing with a

1043
00:48:39,920 --> 00:48:42,200
Speaker 6: lot of that, right because as we open up the market,

1044
00:48:42,239 --> 00:48:44,000
Speaker 6: some of the things we learned in twenty seventeen, we

1045
00:48:44,120 --> 00:48:48,200
Speaker 6: create a swat analysis, like you know, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats.

1046
00:48:48,239 --> 00:48:50,760
Speaker 6: We always knew that because we didn't have a crazy

1047
00:48:50,760 --> 00:48:53,920
Speaker 6: big investment, We never raised this was my money and

1048
00:48:54,040 --> 00:48:58,319
Speaker 6: my partner's money and our teams money. Right, we knew

1049
00:48:58,360 --> 00:49:01,040
Speaker 6: that somebody with bigger pockets open up the market could

1050
00:49:01,080 --> 00:49:03,640
Speaker 6: come in and like really take over our market, or

1051
00:49:03,719 --> 00:49:05,880
Speaker 6: try to at least, So for us, it was about

1052
00:49:05,920 --> 00:49:09,080
Speaker 6: the strategy was about having deep roots in the community

1053
00:49:09,120 --> 00:49:11,560
Speaker 6: so that even if they did come in, we could survive.

1054
00:49:11,600 --> 00:49:14,560
Speaker 6: And we've survived with that. But when there are multiple

1055
00:49:15,200 --> 00:49:18,280
Speaker 6: things happening at the same time, what ended up happening

1056
00:49:18,320 --> 00:49:22,359
Speaker 6: is this competition for cost, right because if and that's

1057
00:49:22,520 --> 00:49:25,359
Speaker 6: you know in Ghana also that just doesn't just talk

1058
00:49:25,400 --> 00:49:28,040
Speaker 6: about artists, it talks about equipment, right, So if you

1059
00:49:28,120 --> 00:49:31,920
Speaker 6: have a camera person that like owns x amount of

1060
00:49:31,960 --> 00:49:34,480
Speaker 6: cameras and there are multiple events, then they're going to

1061
00:49:34,520 --> 00:49:36,160
Speaker 6: be able to start a bit of war. As you know,

1062
00:49:36,239 --> 00:49:39,439
Speaker 6: this is because there's only very few you know, people

1063
00:49:39,480 --> 00:49:40,640
Speaker 6: who can do the expertise.

1064
00:49:41,040 --> 00:49:41,160
Speaker 5: Right.

1065
00:49:41,200 --> 00:49:43,680
Speaker 6: A flyer in Ghana can cost you anywhere between seventy

1066
00:49:43,680 --> 00:49:45,440
Speaker 6: five dollars and one hundred dollars for.

1067
00:49:45,400 --> 00:49:48,239
Speaker 4: A fly For a flyer with that hundred dollars is

1068
00:49:48,239 --> 00:49:49,440
Speaker 4: the equivalent of ten.

1069
00:49:49,360 --> 00:49:53,279
Speaker 6: Dollars, No, one hundred dollars a US dollars for a

1070
00:49:53,320 --> 00:49:56,080
Speaker 6: proper flyer. Now out here you can get a forty

1071
00:49:56,080 --> 00:49:58,200
Speaker 6: dollars fifty dollars because there's so many people you can

1072
00:49:58,239 --> 00:50:00,000
Speaker 6: go to, but there are very few who can do

1073
00:50:00,520 --> 00:50:03,040
Speaker 6: at the quality that we needed to in guard us.

1074
00:50:03,080 --> 00:50:04,479
Speaker 6: So because of that, it costs more.

1075
00:50:04,560 --> 00:50:06,759
Speaker 7: So they're real quick because now I'm thinking about the cost,

1076
00:50:06,840 --> 00:50:08,720
Speaker 7: and like, obviously one of the things that could combat

1077
00:50:08,760 --> 00:50:12,200
Speaker 7: that cost to alleviate the court is sponsorship. And so

1078
00:50:12,320 --> 00:50:14,960
Speaker 7: before in twenty seventeen, you didn't have the LEA said

1079
00:50:14,960 --> 00:50:19,000
Speaker 7: you didn't have the language, So I'm assuming that that's

1080
00:50:19,000 --> 00:50:21,000
Speaker 7: something that you had to learn when you guys went down.

1081
00:50:21,360 --> 00:50:22,600
Speaker 5: You thought about strength and weaknesses.

1082
00:50:22,640 --> 00:50:25,080
Speaker 7: So what is some of the language and getting sponsorship

1083
00:50:25,080 --> 00:50:27,279
Speaker 7: because it's not easy, right, like, especially when you want

1084
00:50:27,280 --> 00:50:29,560
Speaker 7: to have a large scale event and you've seen scaling

1085
00:50:29,600 --> 00:50:33,440
Speaker 7: throughout the years, how do we now approach sponsors and

1086
00:50:33,560 --> 00:50:35,560
Speaker 7: use the properate language to say this is going to

1087
00:50:35,600 --> 00:50:36,560
Speaker 7: help your brand as well?

1088
00:50:36,800 --> 00:50:39,880
Speaker 6: Yeah, I would say the first So look at sponsors

1089
00:50:39,920 --> 00:50:42,080
Speaker 6: are easier for us to get because obviously we had

1090
00:50:42,080 --> 00:50:44,600
Speaker 6: people there, so it was easy for them to kind

1091
00:50:44,600 --> 00:50:47,839
Speaker 6: of come in and activate. In twenty nineteen, we had

1092
00:50:47,960 --> 00:50:51,640
Speaker 6: twenty eighteen, we had like a few other smaller brands

1093
00:50:51,680 --> 00:50:53,200
Speaker 6: that came on and gave us some money. In twenty

1094
00:50:53,280 --> 00:50:55,520
Speaker 6: nineteen is when we had the biggest sponsors, right. We

1095
00:50:55,600 --> 00:50:59,839
Speaker 6: had Twitter. Twitter was the first major sponsors that we had.

1096
00:51:00,040 --> 00:51:03,040
Speaker 6: We had a hashtag emoji. They came built an activation.

1097
00:51:03,160 --> 00:51:06,359
Speaker 6: They sent individuals down to kind of create content with us.

1098
00:51:06,680 --> 00:51:08,840
Speaker 6: It was a year before they opened up their office

1099
00:51:08,880 --> 00:51:10,719
Speaker 6: in Ghana and they marked us as one of the

1100
00:51:10,760 --> 00:51:13,160
Speaker 6: reasons as a partner, and it was their first ever

1101
00:51:13,200 --> 00:51:16,800
Speaker 6: activation on the continent. By that time, we had understood

1102
00:51:16,840 --> 00:51:18,879
Speaker 6: what we had. We understood the data. We understood where

1103
00:51:18,880 --> 00:51:21,440
Speaker 6: they were coming from, their age range, the depending capacity.

1104
00:51:21,960 --> 00:51:26,319
Speaker 6: We understood their buying habits, things that they liked. We

1105
00:51:26,400 --> 00:51:29,279
Speaker 6: had feet surveys from them about what was good, what

1106
00:51:29,400 --> 00:51:33,560
Speaker 6: was bad, what opportunities were that we could attendees the attendees.

1107
00:51:33,960 --> 00:51:36,160
Speaker 6: So now I can go and sit to a sponsor

1108
00:51:36,200 --> 00:51:37,680
Speaker 6: and just not tell them I have an event. I

1109
00:51:37,680 --> 00:51:40,680
Speaker 6: can tell them, well, I have thirty percent our men

1110
00:51:40,800 --> 00:51:43,440
Speaker 6: from this age and sixty percent of women from this age.

1111
00:51:43,480 --> 00:51:46,200
Speaker 6: They like this. They're like dogs, they like this, you know.

1112
00:51:46,280 --> 00:51:48,640
Speaker 6: So you know, if you have a company that's interested

1113
00:51:48,680 --> 00:51:50,600
Speaker 6: in this kind of market how can we work together.

1114
00:51:51,040 --> 00:51:53,920
Speaker 6: You know, at the time, we knew Twitter eventually was

1115
00:51:53,960 --> 00:51:56,000
Speaker 6: going to open an office in Ghana, so we know, look,

1116
00:51:56,160 --> 00:51:58,040
Speaker 6: this is an opportunity for us to work together to

1117
00:51:58,120 --> 00:52:01,239
Speaker 6: kind of create an experience right here. We also had

1118
00:52:01,360 --> 00:52:05,080
Speaker 6: Uber that year that was also launching in Ghana, so

1119
00:52:05,120 --> 00:52:07,440
Speaker 6: we were able to kind of use their platform to

1120
00:52:07,480 --> 00:52:09,440
Speaker 6: kind of communicate to people, but also get people to

1121
00:52:09,520 --> 00:52:11,600
Speaker 6: just kind of reduce the amount of cars they were

1122
00:52:11,640 --> 00:52:14,920
Speaker 6: taking by taking Ubers and creating an opportunity there. So

1123
00:52:14,960 --> 00:52:17,520
Speaker 6: we at the time we knew how to like utilize

1124
00:52:17,520 --> 00:52:19,759
Speaker 6: our space and optimize it to kind of bring more

1125
00:52:19,800 --> 00:52:24,160
Speaker 6: partners into the space, and we've grown ever since. Last

1126
00:52:24,200 --> 00:52:26,160
Speaker 6: year was the first year we actually had a partnership

1127
00:52:26,200 --> 00:52:28,759
Speaker 6: team to kind of build a partnership program that just

1128
00:52:28,800 --> 00:52:31,880
Speaker 6: really kind of understands like how to parse out every

1129
00:52:31,920 --> 00:52:36,000
Speaker 6: single aspect of our festival ground, from the barricades to

1130
00:52:36,160 --> 00:52:40,320
Speaker 6: the entrances, to the exits, to the staging, to the

1131
00:52:40,560 --> 00:52:43,360
Speaker 6: different screens in the space, to the bars, to like

1132
00:52:43,440 --> 00:52:47,080
Speaker 6: every single piece of the space that we have that

1133
00:52:47,120 --> 00:52:50,719
Speaker 6: we can monetize. We look to try and monetize and

1134
00:52:51,160 --> 00:52:54,560
Speaker 6: that gave sponsors more opportunities. And then we also realized

1135
00:52:54,600 --> 00:52:57,439
Speaker 6: that because it was Africa and a lot of them

1136
00:52:57,520 --> 00:53:00,040
Speaker 6: didn't have offices in Africa, it was very difficult for

1137
00:53:00,080 --> 00:53:02,399
Speaker 6: them to market. So the work that we were doing,

1138
00:53:02,440 --> 00:53:05,160
Speaker 6: we're being a trust broker. At the same time, we

1139
00:53:05,160 --> 00:53:07,880
Speaker 6: were being an influencer because we're bringing them to the market.

1140
00:53:08,200 --> 00:53:09,400
Speaker 6: And then at the same time we would be in

1141
00:53:09,400 --> 00:53:11,680
Speaker 6: an agency because we were the first one like kind

1142
00:53:11,680 --> 00:53:12,520
Speaker 6: of bringing.

1143
00:53:12,239 --> 00:53:13,160
Speaker 5: Them to the space.

1144
00:53:14,320 --> 00:53:17,040
Speaker 6: So we had to create more events around the festival

1145
00:53:17,160 --> 00:53:19,040
Speaker 6: to give them multiple touch points so that they can

1146
00:53:19,160 --> 00:53:22,400
Speaker 6: like optimize their institution. One of the things that I

1147
00:53:22,480 --> 00:53:24,600
Speaker 6: learned is that, yeah, you may be working with Twitter,

1148
00:53:24,640 --> 00:53:28,640
Speaker 6: but there's Twitter marketing, there's Twitter for you know, for

1149
00:53:28,719 --> 00:53:30,680
Speaker 6: a podcast. This is just an example of Twitter for

1150
00:53:30,880 --> 00:53:34,520
Speaker 6: cartoons Twitter. So understanding that although there's one company, there

1151
00:53:34,520 --> 00:53:37,719
Speaker 6: are multiple businesses within the company that have different budgets,

1152
00:53:37,719 --> 00:53:41,160
Speaker 6: and understanding how to like optimize all of those parts

1153
00:53:41,160 --> 00:53:43,520
Speaker 6: of the company to come together to support you in

1154
00:53:43,600 --> 00:53:45,440
Speaker 6: order to be able to maximize the dollars that are

1155
00:53:45,440 --> 00:53:47,359
Speaker 6: coming in. With some of the things that we had

1156
00:53:47,400 --> 00:53:51,680
Speaker 6: to learn and we didn't know upfront, and you know, luckily,

1157
00:53:52,719 --> 00:53:54,480
Speaker 6: a bit of partnership is also like who you know

1158
00:53:54,680 --> 00:53:56,640
Speaker 6: as well? Like right, you can't you know you can

1159
00:53:56,719 --> 00:53:59,000
Speaker 6: co email a company sometimes you may get a responsible

1160
00:53:59,040 --> 00:54:01,160
Speaker 6: For the most part, the people that were in there

1161
00:54:01,160 --> 00:54:03,319
Speaker 6: that I also believed in what we were doing made

1162
00:54:03,360 --> 00:54:06,400
Speaker 6: it very easy for us to kind of like understand

1163
00:54:06,440 --> 00:54:09,640
Speaker 6: how to position ourselves to to to get the best

1164
00:54:09,680 --> 00:54:11,080
Speaker 6: support from that from the companies.

1165
00:54:11,160 --> 00:54:14,320
Speaker 7: So the other part right like now you've got sponsorships

1166
00:54:14,719 --> 00:54:17,879
Speaker 7: but accommodations, yeah, right, so like are you reaching out

1167
00:54:17,920 --> 00:54:23,000
Speaker 7: to the local like hotels and obviously the air airlines?

1168
00:54:23,040 --> 00:54:24,640
Speaker 5: Like how do how do you get partnerships? And then

1169
00:54:24,680 --> 00:54:27,640
Speaker 5: but who do you speak to? How did that process go? Yeah?

1170
00:54:27,680 --> 00:54:30,880
Speaker 6: With the hotels, it was a lot. It was a

1171
00:54:30,920 --> 00:54:33,600
Speaker 6: lot easier, but not so much. In Ghana, we have

1172
00:54:34,400 --> 00:54:36,960
Speaker 6: the Kimpinsk, which is the hotel that everybody wants to

1173
00:54:37,000 --> 00:54:39,520
Speaker 6: stay at. You know, hopefully we got that book for

1174
00:54:39,560 --> 00:54:40,319
Speaker 6: you guys right now.

1175
00:54:40,560 --> 00:54:42,399
Speaker 5: There's no hopefully, ye we need we.

1176
00:54:42,360 --> 00:54:44,759
Speaker 6: Need that book for you guys right now, y'all need

1177
00:54:44,800 --> 00:54:47,719
Speaker 6: to be at the Kopinsk. Uh. The moving pick is

1178
00:54:47,760 --> 00:54:50,400
Speaker 6: the next step, right, and then there are boutique hotels

1179
00:54:51,680 --> 00:54:54,200
Speaker 6: like the Quality's the one to Oxford, those kind of

1180
00:54:54,200 --> 00:54:57,840
Speaker 6: hotels are nice as well, but you know, really everybody

1181
00:54:57,880 --> 00:55:00,480
Speaker 6: that somebody wants to stay at these top hotel so

1182
00:55:00,560 --> 00:55:02,960
Speaker 6: really going there you have to have money to put down.

1183
00:55:03,000 --> 00:55:05,440
Speaker 6: So if you're getting forty fifty rooms, you have to

1184
00:55:05,440 --> 00:55:07,400
Speaker 6: be able to pay it upfront and be able to

1185
00:55:07,400 --> 00:55:09,960
Speaker 6: cover that cost of front. So we were doing that.

1186
00:55:10,000 --> 00:55:12,160
Speaker 6: We would do blocks, so we would work with different

1187
00:55:12,239 --> 00:55:14,799
Speaker 6: travel agencies to do blocks to try and block it off.

1188
00:55:15,200 --> 00:55:17,040
Speaker 6: Like I know Essence Festival when they do it, they

1189
00:55:17,040 --> 00:55:19,239
Speaker 6: block off the entire New Orleans so you can't really

1190
00:55:19,239 --> 00:55:20,840
Speaker 6: come in there. So the goal is to get to

1191
00:55:20,840 --> 00:55:22,600
Speaker 6: a place where we can block off the whole thing

1192
00:55:22,760 --> 00:55:24,799
Speaker 6: and really kind of be able to put more toll

1193
00:55:24,880 --> 00:55:26,719
Speaker 6: gates for us to be able to optimize the money

1194
00:55:26,719 --> 00:55:28,959
Speaker 6: that we're bringing in. Because we know, like every single

1195
00:55:29,000 --> 00:55:32,560
Speaker 6: person that comes into Gana spends about twenty six hundred

1196
00:55:32,560 --> 00:55:36,160
Speaker 6: and fifty dollars on average. So if you multiply that

1197
00:55:36,200 --> 00:55:38,319
Speaker 6: by the amount of people, Let's just say last year

1198
00:55:38,360 --> 00:55:41,080
Speaker 6: we did thirty thousand, that's a lot of money. But

1199
00:55:41,120 --> 00:55:43,120
Speaker 6: I'm not getting all of that money. So how do

1200
00:55:43,200 --> 00:55:45,080
Speaker 6: we kind of create more toll bridges to be able

1201
00:55:45,120 --> 00:55:47,360
Speaker 6: to get more of that? Is where we're living in

1202
00:55:47,440 --> 00:55:50,440
Speaker 6: to kind of figure out how to make this more

1203
00:55:50,440 --> 00:55:53,560
Speaker 6: of a business. So whether it's verticaling things like creating

1204
00:55:53,600 --> 00:55:58,919
Speaker 6: more jobs. So we know that last year we knew

1205
00:55:58,960 --> 00:56:01,560
Speaker 6: we needed cleaning, created a cleaning service so that they

1206
00:56:01,560 --> 00:56:03,719
Speaker 6: can clean our space, so that we can pay them

1207
00:56:03,719 --> 00:56:05,799
Speaker 6: at a rate that made sense, but we can also

1208
00:56:05,880 --> 00:56:07,640
Speaker 6: keep some of the money back as opposed to outsource

1209
00:56:07,680 --> 00:56:14,319
Speaker 6: into an agency, or whether it's creating, like owning my

1210
00:56:14,360 --> 00:56:16,600
Speaker 6: own equipment. Right, so this year I'm buying all my

1211
00:56:16,680 --> 00:56:19,160
Speaker 6: stages and everything like that as well, so that I

1212
00:56:19,160 --> 00:56:21,200
Speaker 6: don't I can reduce that cost. I know that my

1213
00:56:21,239 --> 00:56:24,160
Speaker 6: biggest expense is the talent, which is a constant is

1214
00:56:24,160 --> 00:56:26,840
Speaker 6: always gonna go up, and then there's a production cost,

1215
00:56:26,920 --> 00:56:30,520
Speaker 6: which it is not it's not necessarily a it's a

1216
00:56:30,560 --> 00:56:33,200
Speaker 6: constant as well. But if I own most of the equipment,

1217
00:56:33,239 --> 00:56:35,399
Speaker 6: I can reduce that off of my books so that

1218
00:56:35,520 --> 00:56:36,759
Speaker 6: you know, and I can rent it out and I

1219
00:56:36,760 --> 00:56:38,640
Speaker 6: can make I can make some money from it as well.

1220
00:56:38,719 --> 00:56:40,759
Speaker 6: So those are some of the things that I'm like,

1221
00:56:40,800 --> 00:56:42,840
Speaker 6: we're thinking about just to kind of be able to

1222
00:56:42,920 --> 00:56:46,160
Speaker 6: kind of make it better, but also like also raising

1223
00:56:46,560 --> 00:56:48,000
Speaker 6: if you go out in New York it could be

1224
00:56:48,040 --> 00:56:51,200
Speaker 6: like ten different clubs popping at one time, and Ghana

1225
00:56:51,280 --> 00:56:54,640
Speaker 6: is not quite like that yet. You know, everybody kind

1226
00:56:54,640 --> 00:56:56,600
Speaker 6: of like migrates to the same place. So we're all

1227
00:56:56,640 --> 00:56:58,400
Speaker 6: at twists. All right, cool, we leave twist. We're all

1228
00:56:58,400 --> 00:57:00,640
Speaker 6: gonna go to the front back. Okay, everbody's going from

1229
00:57:00,920 --> 00:57:04,160
Speaker 6: going to ace to the sunrises. You know pretty much.

1230
00:57:04,280 --> 00:57:07,239
Speaker 6: That's literally how it is. So having all of these

1231
00:57:07,320 --> 00:57:09,719
Speaker 6: venues stand on their own is another thing. And you

1232
00:57:09,760 --> 00:57:11,960
Speaker 6: do that by bringing more people in the market. And

1233
00:57:12,080 --> 00:57:14,240
Speaker 6: you know, so we need the government to do that obviously,

1234
00:57:14,280 --> 00:57:16,480
Speaker 6: because the more money people have, the more they probably

1235
00:57:16,480 --> 00:57:18,440
Speaker 6: are going to put into the economy.

1236
00:57:18,760 --> 00:57:24,320
Speaker 4: So as far as your data, it's extremely important. And

1237
00:57:24,440 --> 00:57:27,000
Speaker 4: like you said, for sponsors, let's drill down on this,

1238
00:57:27,160 --> 00:57:30,840
Speaker 4: like when you do when you're solicitating sponsors, they want

1239
00:57:30,840 --> 00:57:33,840
Speaker 4: to know like what information. So you had mentioned like

1240
00:57:33,880 --> 00:57:37,680
Speaker 4: you know, as far as where the people are coming from,

1241
00:57:38,200 --> 00:57:41,840
Speaker 4: you know, the money that they're spending, not just like okay,

1242
00:57:42,400 --> 00:57:44,440
Speaker 4: I got their email and got their phone number, Like

1243
00:57:44,640 --> 00:57:46,760
Speaker 4: the percentage that are men, the percentage that are women,

1244
00:57:46,880 --> 00:57:49,440
Speaker 4: the age range, how do you find out that information?

1245
00:57:50,200 --> 00:57:53,560
Speaker 6: So I we did surveys on our on our website.

1246
00:57:53,600 --> 00:57:55,800
Speaker 6: So whenever you fill out to board buy a ticket,

1247
00:57:55,880 --> 00:57:58,760
Speaker 6: these information you filled out it was required information.

1248
00:57:58,440 --> 00:57:59,920
Speaker 4: It's required or yeah, we applied.

1249
00:58:00,080 --> 00:58:02,520
Speaker 6: We require people to let us know like who was

1250
00:58:02,560 --> 00:58:05,560
Speaker 6: coming into the country that was under our purview, right,

1251
00:58:05,840 --> 00:58:08,240
Speaker 6: you don't you know we don't. Obviously the information is

1252
00:58:08,240 --> 00:58:10,680
Speaker 6: blinded and you know we can't share it, and you

1253
00:58:10,680 --> 00:58:13,120
Speaker 6: know it's all in our like our lawyer has all

1254
00:58:13,120 --> 00:58:15,320
Speaker 6: the language in there when you when you buy a ticket,

1255
00:58:15,680 --> 00:58:18,800
Speaker 6: but that information is given to us. It also is

1256
00:58:18,840 --> 00:58:20,920
Speaker 6: given to us through the medic data of our socials,

1257
00:58:21,000 --> 00:58:23,120
Speaker 6: so we're able to come compare it, and then our

1258
00:58:23,120 --> 00:58:25,400
Speaker 6: website also is able to kind of like if you

1259
00:58:25,400 --> 00:58:27,120
Speaker 6: look at the back of the square space, you'll be

1260
00:58:27,160 --> 00:58:28,840
Speaker 6: able to kind of tell where all people are coming

1261
00:58:28,920 --> 00:58:32,280
Speaker 6: up and what they're doing in that space as well.

1262
00:58:32,400 --> 00:58:35,000
Speaker 6: So now if you look at the analytics on your

1263
00:58:35,000 --> 00:58:38,360
Speaker 6: social pathform, you'll be able to kind of see like

1264
00:58:38,440 --> 00:58:41,840
Speaker 6: who's following you and like like how much money they

1265
00:58:41,880 --> 00:58:43,320
Speaker 6: make and things of that nature. So all of that

1266
00:58:43,360 --> 00:58:45,840
Speaker 6: information is there for you. Now is about how you

1267
00:58:45,960 --> 00:58:48,160
Speaker 6: use it to kind of make sense, right, because if

1268
00:58:48,200 --> 00:58:50,600
Speaker 6: you look at the analytics behind your Instagram for instance,

1269
00:58:50,600 --> 00:58:52,360
Speaker 6: it will tell you really how to like market to

1270
00:58:52,400 --> 00:58:54,920
Speaker 6: your audience, when's the best time to market to your audience.

1271
00:58:55,120 --> 00:58:56,600
Speaker 6: So all of those things are some of the things

1272
00:58:56,600 --> 00:58:59,000
Speaker 6: that we've optimized to kind of make make make it

1273
00:58:59,000 --> 00:59:01,880
Speaker 6: make sense. I knew that women were our biggest customer,

1274
00:59:01,960 --> 00:59:03,640
Speaker 6: so last year we know we needed to put a

1275
00:59:03,680 --> 00:59:06,440
Speaker 6: beauty experience in there, so we got fenty Beauty to

1276
00:59:06,480 --> 00:59:09,280
Speaker 6: come in. With the percentage of women versus men I

1277
00:59:09,280 --> 00:59:11,360
Speaker 6: think sixty percent. I think that's one of the main

1278
00:59:11,360 --> 00:59:14,439
Speaker 6: reason why a lot of people love it. There's nothing

1279
00:59:14,720 --> 00:59:16,600
Speaker 6: there's not there's no shortage of women that are coming

1280
00:59:16,640 --> 00:59:18,400
Speaker 6: into the Guna during that time.

1281
00:59:18,880 --> 00:59:21,720
Speaker 4: How do you mention the economic impact, Well.

1282
00:59:21,600 --> 00:59:25,200
Speaker 6: The economic impact is there. We have testimonials. There's somebody

1283
00:59:25,240 --> 00:59:27,720
Speaker 6: who said, you know, because you know, when we announced

1284
00:59:27,720 --> 00:59:29,280
Speaker 6: that last year will be the last one, there were

1285
00:59:29,280 --> 00:59:32,120
Speaker 6: a lot of people that were kind of like sad

1286
00:59:32,160 --> 00:59:34,400
Speaker 6: because we can tell that somebody was like, I made

1287
00:59:34,440 --> 00:59:36,920
Speaker 6: a hundred thousand over airbnbs and just the years that

1288
00:59:36,960 --> 00:59:40,960
Speaker 6: they existed, Right, you can tell by more venues are opening, right,

1289
00:59:41,040 --> 00:59:44,560
Speaker 6: there's so many new venues since twenty seventeen up until now,

1290
00:59:44,640 --> 00:59:46,479
Speaker 6: so that's one way for us to be able to tell.

1291
00:59:47,160 --> 00:59:48,680
Speaker 6: We can tell by the amount of people that are

1292
00:59:48,680 --> 00:59:50,760
Speaker 6: coming into a country. If sixteen percent of people are

1293
00:59:50,760 --> 00:59:53,920
Speaker 6: coming in for tourism, right, that's and each of them

1294
00:59:53,960 --> 00:59:56,280
Speaker 6: are spending two thousand, six hundred and fifty. If you

1295
00:59:56,360 --> 00:59:59,800
Speaker 6: multiply sixteen percent of let's say a million, which is

1296
00:59:59,800 --> 01:00:01,480
Speaker 6: the aount of people that came in twenty seventeen, and

1297
01:00:01,520 --> 01:00:04,840
Speaker 6: you multiply that by two twenty six fifty, which is

1298
01:00:04,840 --> 01:00:08,320
Speaker 6: the average spend that gotten the government report has given us,

1299
01:00:08,680 --> 01:00:12,400
Speaker 6: that's a couple couple like a couple couple million, a

1300
01:00:12,400 --> 01:00:14,720
Speaker 6: couple of hundred million, right, So it's like we're bringing

1301
01:00:14,720 --> 01:00:16,919
Speaker 6: in a lot of people into the country and each

1302
01:00:16,960 --> 01:00:19,960
Speaker 6: one is spending x amount on average, and if they're

1303
01:00:19,960 --> 01:00:21,880
Speaker 6: spending x amount, that's how you know that the impact

1304
01:00:21,920 --> 01:00:24,480
Speaker 6: that you're having on the community. And we wanted to

1305
01:00:24,560 --> 01:00:26,040
Speaker 6: know that because we wanted to be able to go

1306
01:00:26,080 --> 01:00:28,440
Speaker 6: and say, hey, our event alone is bringing in this

1307
01:00:28,520 --> 01:00:31,600
Speaker 6: amount of people, what can you do? And some of

1308
01:00:31,640 --> 01:00:33,560
Speaker 6: it we tested as well. When we announced that we

1309
01:00:33,560 --> 01:00:35,360
Speaker 6: weren't going, we got a lot of calls from the

1310
01:00:35,360 --> 01:00:37,800
Speaker 6: government to sit down and talk about how this is

1311
01:00:38,200 --> 01:00:41,600
Speaker 6: you know, supporting tourism. Another thing is we've seen that

1312
01:00:41,880 --> 01:00:43,760
Speaker 6: a lot more brands are willing to come into the

1313
01:00:43,800 --> 01:00:47,360
Speaker 6: space because of us and through us to come in.

1314
01:00:47,800 --> 01:00:49,560
Speaker 6: You know, we started off with Twitter, but we've worked

1315
01:00:49,560 --> 01:00:52,040
Speaker 6: with Amazon, I'm sorry, We've worked with excuse me now, Amazon.

1316
01:00:52,080 --> 01:00:52,680
Speaker 5: We've worked with.

1317
01:00:54,120 --> 01:00:58,360
Speaker 6: Meta, We've worked with Instagram, We've worked with Tonecore, Sony Music,

1318
01:00:58,480 --> 01:01:01,720
Speaker 6: We've worked with Audio Mac. Audio Mac for instance, you know,

1319
01:01:01,800 --> 01:01:03,640
Speaker 6: credits us as one of the main reasons why they've

1320
01:01:03,640 --> 01:01:06,120
Speaker 6: been able to grow their audience in Ghana and across

1321
01:01:06,120 --> 01:01:07,960
Speaker 6: West Africa as well. We've done a lot of work

1322
01:01:08,000 --> 01:01:11,080
Speaker 6: with them, so our relationship building and the partners that

1323
01:01:11,120 --> 01:01:13,960
Speaker 6: we've built our clear examples of how we can, like

1324
01:01:14,280 --> 01:01:17,080
Speaker 6: you know, acknowledge how much we've done. For instance, when

1325
01:01:17,080 --> 01:01:20,000
Speaker 6: we started in twenty eighteen, Spotify was not even looking

1326
01:01:20,040 --> 01:01:22,440
Speaker 6: at West Africa as an option of a place for

1327
01:01:22,600 --> 01:01:26,080
Speaker 6: them to come in. And it's interesting because Spotify had

1328
01:01:26,120 --> 01:01:29,520
Speaker 6: one of the best playlists in afrobeats ever because they

1329
01:01:29,560 --> 01:01:32,360
Speaker 6: had a guy there named Tunde who understood the music

1330
01:01:32,720 --> 01:01:36,040
Speaker 6: and he broke it down into different genres of African music.

1331
01:01:36,200 --> 01:01:40,200
Speaker 6: So that I'm my pianos the African fusion, the ar

1332
01:01:40,280 --> 01:01:43,120
Speaker 6: Zoom tool music. He broke it down that way and

1333
01:01:43,520 --> 01:01:46,360
Speaker 6: he was driving it so well, but they end up

1334
01:01:46,400 --> 01:01:50,680
Speaker 6: closing out his whole department. Two three years later, Spotify

1335
01:01:50,720 --> 01:01:52,880
Speaker 6: does the activation in Ghana, which is interesting to me.

1336
01:01:53,120 --> 01:01:56,640
Speaker 6: So that tells us about the impact as well that

1337
01:01:56,760 --> 01:01:58,640
Speaker 6: we've that we've been able to do, and also our

1338
01:01:58,680 --> 01:02:02,280
Speaker 6: numbers keep growing. You've never had a downpour out like

1339
01:02:02,480 --> 01:02:06,800
Speaker 6: you know, a downward try of you know, of attendees.

1340
01:02:06,920 --> 01:02:09,800
Speaker 6: Last year we did thirty thousand, twenty much this year.

1341
01:02:10,920 --> 01:02:13,440
Speaker 6: This year, well, we're hoping to go forty thou twenty

1342
01:02:13,480 --> 01:02:16,080
Speaker 6: thousand this day, you know, over over two days. But

1343
01:02:16,120 --> 01:02:18,120
Speaker 6: last year we did thirty thousand over two days. The

1344
01:02:18,200 --> 01:02:21,080
Speaker 6: year before that was the pandemic year. We worked with

1345
01:02:21,080 --> 01:02:23,720
Speaker 6: Ghanda's government to write the rules to open up you know,

1346
01:02:24,520 --> 01:02:27,320
Speaker 6: you know, events for everyone in the contract, and we

1347
01:02:27,320 --> 01:02:29,080
Speaker 6: did ten thousand and five and that was because of

1348
01:02:29,120 --> 01:02:29,760
Speaker 6: a government limit.

1349
01:02:29,840 --> 01:02:33,040
Speaker 4: So twenty thousand each day? Is that? With that? Is

1350
01:02:33,080 --> 01:02:36,800
Speaker 4: it twenty thousand because it's the same people each day,

1351
01:02:36,840 --> 01:02:37,120
Speaker 4: all right?

1352
01:02:37,240 --> 01:02:40,120
Speaker 6: Yeah, but you kind of by individuals.

1353
01:02:39,560 --> 01:02:40,040
Speaker 5: That come in.

1354
01:02:40,200 --> 01:02:42,080
Speaker 7: Yeah, so if you had forty thousands, I'm just doing

1355
01:02:42,080 --> 01:02:43,880
Speaker 7: the math, right, If you have forty thousand people at

1356
01:02:43,880 --> 01:02:45,640
Speaker 7: that average spend, that's over one hundred million.

1357
01:02:45,880 --> 01:02:46,160
Speaker 5: Yeah.

1358
01:02:46,480 --> 01:02:49,520
Speaker 7: If the government said in twenty seventeen they brought in

1359
01:02:50,360 --> 01:02:52,800
Speaker 7: a million people came in it was sixteen percent of

1360
01:02:52,840 --> 01:02:56,320
Speaker 7: your audience and they did that, that's like four hundred million.

1361
01:02:56,880 --> 01:02:57,120
Speaker 4: Yeah.

1362
01:02:57,200 --> 01:02:59,360
Speaker 6: Wait explaining that to be so like I.

1363
01:02:59,320 --> 01:03:01,360
Speaker 7: Said, it was a million people that came into Ghana, Yeah,

1364
01:03:01,360 --> 01:03:04,000
Speaker 7: in twenty nineteen, So sixteen percent of the people that

1365
01:03:04,040 --> 01:03:06,440
Speaker 7: came into one hundred and sixty thousand people, if they

1366
01:03:06,480 --> 01:03:10,520
Speaker 7: all spend twenty six to fifty, it's like that's four hundred.

1367
01:03:10,440 --> 01:03:13,160
Speaker 6: That's correct, But that's for the whole country, for the country.

1368
01:03:13,280 --> 01:03:15,520
Speaker 6: They came to Ghana because of the festival, didn't mean

1369
01:03:15,560 --> 01:03:17,200
Speaker 6: they all came right right, right.

1370
01:03:17,640 --> 01:03:22,160
Speaker 5: So the I mean these numbers, it was an astronomical.

1371
01:03:21,680 --> 01:03:25,240
Speaker 6: They're astronomical, but you know it's just like it's spread

1372
01:03:25,240 --> 01:03:28,360
Speaker 6: out right right because I don't own the hotels exactly,

1373
01:03:28,360 --> 01:03:30,520
Speaker 6: I don't own the flights. I don't own it. So yes,

1374
01:03:30,560 --> 01:03:33,360
Speaker 6: people are spending this, So we know we're creating this economics,

1375
01:03:34,160 --> 01:03:36,760
Speaker 6: and how do we now become a part of the ecosystem.

1376
01:03:37,160 --> 01:03:39,400
Speaker 6: How do we make it so by creating services and

1377
01:03:39,480 --> 01:03:43,880
Speaker 6: vertical and things by also working with the hotels to

1378
01:03:43,960 --> 01:03:47,440
Speaker 6: kind of strike deals where maybe I get rates that

1379
01:03:47,600 --> 01:03:52,000
Speaker 6: can I can give out reallyod type situations. We're looking

1380
01:03:52,040 --> 01:03:54,920
Speaker 6: into like charter and planes right because Delsa is going crazy.

1381
01:03:55,240 --> 01:03:58,000
Speaker 6: So if I can do charter flights where we reduce

1382
01:03:58,040 --> 01:04:00,160
Speaker 6: the costs for people and we could still make some

1383
01:04:00,200 --> 01:04:02,480
Speaker 6: funds off of it, you know, to challenge Delta to

1384
01:04:02,480 --> 01:04:04,680
Speaker 6: come down because people maybe won't take that. Those are

1385
01:04:04,920 --> 01:04:08,040
Speaker 6: options for us as well. Optimizing. One of the things

1386
01:04:08,040 --> 01:04:10,040
Speaker 6: that I love about you guys platform is how much

1387
01:04:10,080 --> 01:04:15,400
Speaker 6: you've optimized social like your YouTube and things that nature.

1388
01:04:15,760 --> 01:04:18,440
Speaker 6: We haven't done that yet. You know, our focus, like

1389
01:04:18,600 --> 01:04:20,240
Speaker 6: if you want to see what we do, you have

1390
01:04:20,280 --> 01:04:21,640
Speaker 6: to be there, and I think that's part of it.

1391
01:04:21,720 --> 01:04:23,920
Speaker 6: But we know that we can generate more by like

1392
01:04:24,120 --> 01:04:27,680
Speaker 6: doing more social selling content. We actually have a film

1393
01:04:27,720 --> 01:04:29,960
Speaker 6: coming out with Meta that was a three D film

1394
01:04:29,960 --> 01:04:33,520
Speaker 6: shot of the performances and the experience in Ghana. So

1395
01:04:33,560 --> 01:04:34,960
Speaker 6: those are things that we want to do more of.

1396
01:04:35,600 --> 01:04:38,200
Speaker 7: Move One of the things that you left the last

1397
01:04:38,320 --> 01:04:40,760
Speaker 7: impact is you said the jobs, and so you create

1398
01:04:40,800 --> 01:04:43,360
Speaker 7: over five thousand jobs, so that helps the economy too.

1399
01:04:43,440 --> 01:04:45,840
Speaker 7: So absolutely, what type of jobs are you creating and

1400
01:04:45,920 --> 01:04:49,440
Speaker 7: are those jobs sustainable after we leave December? Like, are

1401
01:04:49,480 --> 01:04:51,920
Speaker 7: these people staying with these jobs throughout the years of

1402
01:04:51,960 --> 01:04:52,680
Speaker 7: twelve months of a year.

1403
01:04:52,880 --> 01:04:55,440
Speaker 6: No, a portion of them are. So most of these

1404
01:04:55,440 --> 01:04:58,480
Speaker 6: are production jobs. You know, people who are building, they

1405
01:04:58,560 --> 01:05:02,160
Speaker 6: probably work for three months three months, so seasonal jobs.

1406
01:05:02,840 --> 01:05:05,120
Speaker 6: We are trying to get it where we can build

1407
01:05:06,640 --> 01:05:09,880
Speaker 6: a system of like a temp agency if you may, right.

1408
01:05:09,960 --> 01:05:11,800
Speaker 6: So right now, when I come and I'm looking for

1409
01:05:11,840 --> 01:05:16,400
Speaker 6: somebody to build, the space is very limited amount of people.

1410
01:05:16,400 --> 01:05:19,600
Speaker 6: So creating a temp agency where now we can actually

1411
01:05:19,640 --> 01:05:22,440
Speaker 6: outsource the services and provide services to people is the

1412
01:05:22,480 --> 01:05:25,360
Speaker 6: next level for us. Because we've been paying out so much,

1413
01:05:25,720 --> 01:05:27,400
Speaker 6: we need to reeld some of that in. So by

1414
01:05:27,400 --> 01:05:30,640
Speaker 6: owning the equipment now we can you know, actually train

1415
01:05:30,720 --> 01:05:33,280
Speaker 6: our individuals, get trainers so that now we can also

1416
01:05:33,320 --> 01:05:35,240
Speaker 6: not provide service, but not only in Ghana but like

1417
01:05:35,280 --> 01:05:38,320
Speaker 6: across West Africa and possibly other bides.

1418
01:05:38,360 --> 01:05:40,640
Speaker 7: Yeah, when you own the equipment, now you can create

1419
01:05:40,680 --> 01:05:44,080
Speaker 7: more content. I was watching Snowfall. They had an episode

1420
01:05:44,080 --> 01:05:46,480
Speaker 7: where he went to Ghana, yeah, and I was just like, look,

1421
01:05:46,520 --> 01:05:49,040
Speaker 7: how beautiful they've captured this. So now, like you can

1422
01:05:49,120 --> 01:05:51,360
Speaker 7: literally create a production studio based on the equipment you

1423
01:05:51,400 --> 01:05:52,000
Speaker 7: know exactly.

1424
01:05:52,280 --> 01:05:53,800
Speaker 6: A lot of people are doing that right now, so

1425
01:05:54,000 --> 01:05:55,600
Speaker 6: I know you just Elbow is looking to open up

1426
01:05:55,600 --> 01:05:58,920
Speaker 6: a production studios. Tyler Perry has talked about it a

1427
01:05:58,960 --> 01:06:01,440
Speaker 6: few others. But yeah, we we've been doing it and

1428
01:06:01,600 --> 01:06:03,320
Speaker 6: we're going to continue to do it, and we want

1429
01:06:03,360 --> 01:06:05,200
Speaker 6: to do it. I think there's so much stories to tell,

1430
01:06:05,240 --> 01:06:07,160
Speaker 6: so I think there's even more space for more people

1431
01:06:07,160 --> 01:06:08,960
Speaker 6: to come in. I think the best way to do

1432
01:06:09,080 --> 01:06:10,920
Speaker 6: is to come in and collaborate with people on the ground,

1433
01:06:10,920 --> 01:06:12,800
Speaker 6: like you're just doing and some of the others are

1434
01:06:12,800 --> 01:06:14,280
Speaker 6: doing as well, just kind of working with people on

1435
01:06:14,320 --> 01:06:17,560
Speaker 6: the ground to build out opportunities. And that's some of

1436
01:06:17,560 --> 01:06:18,080
Speaker 6: the work we're doing.

1437
01:06:18,200 --> 01:06:21,760
Speaker 4: So talk about like you know, attracting corporate sponsors, the

1438
01:06:21,840 --> 01:06:24,360
Speaker 4: process of doing that, put together a deck, what should

1439
01:06:24,360 --> 01:06:25,840
Speaker 4: be in a deck, and all of that type of

1440
01:06:26,120 --> 01:06:28,080
Speaker 4: corporate reach. Like do you do it yourself? You have

1441
01:06:28,080 --> 01:06:29,600
Speaker 4: an agency that doesn't for you.

1442
01:06:29,600 --> 01:06:32,040
Speaker 6: No, I do it myself. I've built most of all

1443
01:06:32,040 --> 01:06:34,080
Speaker 6: of our decks by myself. Every single piece of writing

1444
01:06:34,920 --> 01:06:36,640
Speaker 6: you see you on a website or on our decks,

1445
01:06:36,640 --> 01:06:39,480
Speaker 6: I wrote it with my bare hands, right, So my

1446
01:06:39,600 --> 01:06:43,680
Speaker 6: thing is like, you want the deck to look like

1447
01:06:43,760 --> 01:06:47,600
Speaker 6: something that anybody can look at it and understand your brand,

1448
01:06:47,760 --> 01:06:52,160
Speaker 6: like if they have any questions, it should be about process,

1449
01:06:52,280 --> 01:06:55,960
Speaker 6: not necessarily what is right? How do we make this happen?

1450
01:06:56,000 --> 01:06:58,800
Speaker 6: Not necessarily what is and it should speak to you.

1451
01:06:58,800 --> 01:07:01,240
Speaker 6: It's like your resume. You may are what you've done,

1452
01:07:01,960 --> 01:07:04,280
Speaker 6: the numbers, what the numbers are saying? Why does it

1453
01:07:04,320 --> 01:07:07,080
Speaker 6: benefit them? What can they do when they come there?

1454
01:07:07,120 --> 01:07:11,000
Speaker 6: How do they see themselves in your activation? So we've

1455
01:07:11,120 --> 01:07:13,840
Speaker 6: grown from just a festival. Over two days at the festival,

1456
01:07:13,920 --> 01:07:17,680
Speaker 6: there's so many different opportunities. You can have a photo moment,

1457
01:07:17,880 --> 01:07:22,360
Speaker 6: you can have a activation where people can interact. So

1458
01:07:22,400 --> 01:07:25,400
Speaker 6: we've done activations with for instance, YouTube where we built

1459
01:07:25,440 --> 01:07:30,920
Speaker 6: a shorts program. YouTube was launching a short form program

1460
01:07:31,160 --> 01:07:34,400
Speaker 6: which is like you know, the TikTok the reels, and

1461
01:07:34,680 --> 01:07:36,520
Speaker 6: they were launching in Ghana. So we work with them

1462
01:07:36,520 --> 01:07:39,120
Speaker 6: to build a forty by forty playground where people can

1463
01:07:39,200 --> 01:07:41,440
Speaker 6: go in there and create content. At the time, Ghana

1464
01:07:41,560 --> 01:07:45,040
Speaker 6: was not a priority market for YouTube, but through a activation,

1465
01:07:45,560 --> 01:07:48,240
Speaker 6: YouTube reassessed and realize Ghana is a priority market that

1466
01:07:48,320 --> 01:07:50,320
Speaker 6: day alone, we were able to create one thousand plus

1467
01:07:50,360 --> 01:07:54,320
Speaker 6: reels i mean well shorts for YouTube in Ghana, so

1468
01:07:54,360 --> 01:07:58,040
Speaker 6: that's one type of activation you can have. We also

1469
01:07:58,080 --> 01:08:00,280
Speaker 6: worked with YouTube Uber last year there was a young

1470
01:08:00,320 --> 01:08:03,880
Speaker 6: man who use scrap metal to create a car, like

1471
01:08:03,920 --> 01:08:05,959
Speaker 6: an actual car that you can drive on a road.

1472
01:08:06,240 --> 01:08:08,520
Speaker 6: So Uber wanted to highlight that and use that as

1473
01:08:08,520 --> 01:08:10,720
Speaker 6: an activation on the ground to be able to give

1474
01:08:11,120 --> 01:08:16,040
Speaker 6: people discount of tickets. So that's a display activation. Or

1475
01:08:16,080 --> 01:08:18,960
Speaker 6: we can do more immersive activations like we did with

1476
01:08:19,000 --> 01:08:23,480
Speaker 6: Twitter where people could scan their barcodes on their wristband

1477
01:08:23,680 --> 01:08:26,439
Speaker 6: and that could send a tweet or do things like

1478
01:08:26,479 --> 01:08:31,040
Speaker 6: that to kind of engage with the community. Or last

1479
01:08:31,080 --> 01:08:33,120
Speaker 6: year we work with YouTube began to create National Joe

1480
01:08:33,200 --> 01:08:35,360
Speaker 6: Off Day, right, So there are different several and that

1481
01:08:35,479 --> 01:08:37,960
Speaker 6: was a digital activation. So we do a combination of

1482
01:08:37,960 --> 01:08:42,839
Speaker 6: digital activation, in person activations, panel discussions, and we've expanded

1483
01:08:42,840 --> 01:08:44,880
Speaker 6: our portfolio to be able to do all of these

1484
01:08:44,920 --> 01:08:48,960
Speaker 6: things outside of the festival. We also have the Average Expo,

1485
01:08:49,920 --> 01:08:52,040
Speaker 6: which is an opportunity for us to kind of have

1486
01:08:52,240 --> 01:08:55,960
Speaker 6: discussions about real life as in you are interested in

1487
01:08:56,160 --> 01:08:58,680
Speaker 6: agriculture and Ghana, all right, cool? These are experts that

1488
01:08:58,920 --> 01:09:02,280
Speaker 6: understand it. Let's engage them. You're intersted in the food industry,

1489
01:09:02,560 --> 01:09:05,960
Speaker 6: Let's engage them your industry and finances. Let's talk to them.

1490
01:09:06,280 --> 01:09:08,479
Speaker 6: They're industed in the music business. Let's have a panel

1491
01:09:08,479 --> 01:09:10,800
Speaker 6: discussions with that. And we've done that with tone Core,

1492
01:09:10,920 --> 01:09:16,599
Speaker 6: with YouTube corut Global, We've done collaborations with Topicals, which

1493
01:09:16,640 --> 01:09:19,639
Speaker 6: is a new brand that she raised ten million dollars

1494
01:09:20,040 --> 01:09:22,040
Speaker 6: last year she was in Ghana. We did it with

1495
01:09:22,080 --> 01:09:27,040
Speaker 6: Modern I think it's Modern Girls. You know, they created

1496
01:09:27,040 --> 01:09:30,200
Speaker 6: a you know, uh, she's a young girl who started

1497
01:09:30,840 --> 01:09:34,800
Speaker 6: teaching about finances in the pandemic. Tiffany Jay does great

1498
01:09:34,840 --> 01:09:37,360
Speaker 6: work as well, So we've invited some of these people.

1499
01:09:37,840 --> 01:09:39,920
Speaker 6: A lot of our work is also built on collaboration.

1500
01:09:40,160 --> 01:09:42,479
Speaker 6: So bringing an R and B house party to Ghana

1501
01:09:42,520 --> 01:09:44,800
Speaker 6: and having them do a party with Polo Beach is

1502
01:09:44,800 --> 01:09:48,000
Speaker 6: something that was really good at building community as well.

1503
01:09:48,080 --> 01:09:51,559
Speaker 6: So now these are all exciting opportunities for partners. Right,

1504
01:09:51,600 --> 01:09:53,640
Speaker 6: So if a partner has partner with R and B

1505
01:09:53,720 --> 01:09:56,920
Speaker 6: house party, for instance, in America, and I told him, look,

1506
01:09:56,960 --> 01:09:59,080
Speaker 6: you know, they're gonna come to Ghana and we're gonna

1507
01:09:59,120 --> 01:10:01,920
Speaker 6: do activation, do activation at the festival and have the

1508
01:10:01,960 --> 01:10:03,519
Speaker 6: after part of the R and B house party. It

1509
01:10:03,520 --> 01:10:07,040
Speaker 6: makes sense for them, right because it's something that's familiar.

1510
01:10:07,080 --> 01:10:08,439
Speaker 6: They can do it out here, they can do it

1511
01:10:08,479 --> 01:10:11,320
Speaker 6: out there. So creating those multiple touch points are some

1512
01:10:11,360 --> 01:10:13,880
Speaker 6: of the key things for a partner because then they

1513
01:10:13,920 --> 01:10:17,360
Speaker 6: get to stretch their dollar, which makes them look good

1514
01:10:17,400 --> 01:10:20,759
Speaker 6: to their company as well. But also we always deliver

1515
01:10:20,960 --> 01:10:24,920
Speaker 6: on the activation. So fenty came into Tadhana, they did

1516
01:10:24,920 --> 01:10:27,800
Speaker 6: the activation. They sold way more than they spent on

1517
01:10:27,880 --> 01:10:30,280
Speaker 6: the activation. That's at their positive for them.

1518
01:10:30,120 --> 01:10:31,479
Speaker 4: To what's their activation look like.

1519
01:10:32,400 --> 01:10:35,200
Speaker 6: So Fency we built a twenty x twenty space for

1520
01:10:35,280 --> 01:10:38,200
Speaker 6: them which was like a beauty bar that people can

1521
01:10:38,280 --> 01:10:42,240
Speaker 6: go get their makeup done, consult with makeup artists, and

1522
01:10:43,360 --> 01:10:45,519
Speaker 6: they use that as an opportunity to kind of also

1523
01:10:45,560 --> 01:10:47,439
Speaker 6: do makeup for some of the artists as well. So

1524
01:10:47,479 --> 01:10:50,759
Speaker 6: now they're getting touch points backstage where talent is getting

1525
01:10:50,800 --> 01:10:54,080
Speaker 6: done with makeup. They're can associate their brand with the talent.

1526
01:10:54,400 --> 01:10:57,679
Speaker 6: They're also getting content from the from the individuals who

1527
01:10:57,760 --> 01:11:01,320
Speaker 6: are going into their space and taking pictures and posting

1528
01:11:01,320 --> 01:11:04,639
Speaker 6: it by fenty Beauty at aver Eachella, and also they're

1529
01:11:04,640 --> 01:11:07,680
Speaker 6: getting to sell products, so they've made money all the

1530
01:11:07,680 --> 01:11:10,000
Speaker 6: way around for them to kind for it to make

1531
01:11:10,040 --> 01:11:14,000
Speaker 6: sense for fenty beauty. So I know a brand like

1532
01:11:14,000 --> 01:11:15,880
Speaker 6: that is going to come back, right. All the brands

1533
01:11:15,920 --> 01:11:19,160
Speaker 6: that we've worked with have always come back. Meta came back.

1534
01:11:19,200 --> 01:11:23,280
Speaker 6: Twitter has come back up until Elon took over. You know,

1535
01:11:24,040 --> 01:11:26,960
Speaker 6: Instagram has come back. You know, we anticipate fan come

1536
01:11:26,960 --> 01:11:29,439
Speaker 6: back and we anticipate more beauty brands, and our goal

1537
01:11:29,520 --> 01:11:31,360
Speaker 6: is to be able to just kind of keep opening up,

1538
01:11:32,040 --> 01:11:35,360
Speaker 6: for it to just be not just the festival as

1539
01:11:35,400 --> 01:11:37,760
Speaker 6: the focal point, but there's so many pieces around it

1540
01:11:37,840 --> 01:11:40,040
Speaker 6: that make it a real mecca for the diaspora when

1541
01:11:40,040 --> 01:11:42,719
Speaker 6: they come back to Ghana. So if you want to party,

1542
01:11:42,920 --> 01:11:45,439
Speaker 6: you have that opportunity. If you want to educate yourself,

1543
01:11:45,439 --> 01:11:47,519
Speaker 6: you have the opportunity. If you want to relax, you

1544
01:11:47,560 --> 01:11:49,760
Speaker 6: have the opportunity. One of the things that I'm really

1545
01:11:49,760 --> 01:11:53,000
Speaker 6: excited about is there was a young man's name was

1546
01:11:53,040 --> 01:11:55,920
Speaker 6: Russian and he started a company called Poetry Me and

1547
01:11:55,960 --> 01:11:57,760
Speaker 6: he reached out to me last year through one of

1548
01:11:57,760 --> 01:12:01,320
Speaker 6: my boys, Neville, and Know I was like, Ah, let's

1549
01:12:01,360 --> 01:12:03,280
Speaker 6: do a poetry event would be really cool. It's something

1550
01:12:03,280 --> 01:12:06,680
Speaker 6: different across you know, everybody clubs, let's do something that

1551
01:12:06,720 --> 01:12:10,400
Speaker 6: people would just and it was amazing. Jiv performed like

1552
01:12:10,439 --> 01:12:12,840
Speaker 6: you know, so for that to be the experience and

1553
01:12:12,880 --> 01:12:14,599
Speaker 6: for it to sell out in that way his first

1554
01:12:14,640 --> 01:12:17,120
Speaker 6: event and gone, I thought that was beautiful. We also

1555
01:12:17,120 --> 01:12:19,720
Speaker 6: did event with Black Health Connects, So what they did

1556
01:12:19,840 --> 01:12:23,480
Speaker 6: was they set up a mixer for black health professionals

1557
01:12:23,520 --> 01:12:26,160
Speaker 6: across the diaspora, and I thought that was beautiful as well.

1558
01:12:26,439 --> 01:12:30,680
Speaker 6: So we're looking to do more things like that, meetups, conversations,

1559
01:12:31,400 --> 01:12:36,720
Speaker 6: panel discussions, idea exchanges. The hope is for there to

1560
01:12:36,800 --> 01:12:38,840
Speaker 6: be maybe a couple of investment groups that come out

1561
01:12:38,840 --> 01:12:40,599
Speaker 6: of this so that they can go and help us

1562
01:12:40,600 --> 01:12:43,720
Speaker 6: build you know, whether we're building schools, whether we building communities.

1563
01:12:44,040 --> 01:12:47,400
Speaker 6: I think those are all great opportunities for people back

1564
01:12:47,400 --> 01:12:47,800
Speaker 6: here as well.

1565
01:12:47,920 --> 01:12:51,960
Speaker 7: Are you seeing that as a by product of the event,

1566
01:12:52,479 --> 01:12:54,400
Speaker 7: Like we have corporate coming in for the event, but

1567
01:12:54,400 --> 01:12:57,479
Speaker 7: do you see the diaspora investing back in across Yes.

1568
01:12:57,520 --> 01:12:59,479
Speaker 6: As a result, Yes, I've seen people who have gotten

1569
01:12:59,520 --> 01:13:03,040
Speaker 6: their citizenship, their residency who actually working from there, who

1570
01:13:03,120 --> 01:13:07,639
Speaker 6: have started businesses. You know, whether it's important shade butter

1571
01:13:07,760 --> 01:13:11,800
Speaker 6: or selling baskets or you know, buying property and being

1572
01:13:11,920 --> 01:13:14,880
Speaker 6: be in it. People are doing a whole bunch of things,

1573
01:13:14,920 --> 01:13:17,200
Speaker 6: you know, whether they're starting clubs, open up a restaurant.

1574
01:13:17,560 --> 01:13:19,559
Speaker 6: I've seen a lot of that happen in the past

1575
01:13:19,560 --> 01:13:22,479
Speaker 6: couple of years, and frankly, it makes me very happy.

1576
01:13:22,840 --> 01:13:24,599
Speaker 6: One of the first things people do is probably set

1577
01:13:24,640 --> 01:13:26,360
Speaker 6: up a tour group because you know, if I come

1578
01:13:26,600 --> 01:13:29,519
Speaker 6: when you're now comping twenty people, and you know, it's

1579
01:13:29,560 --> 01:13:31,880
Speaker 6: a business, and I think it's a really good one.

1580
01:13:32,760 --> 01:13:34,920
Speaker 6: But there's so many other things that people can do.

1581
01:13:34,960 --> 01:13:37,559
Speaker 6: I haven't seen anybody adventure into agriculture, which I think

1582
01:13:37,640 --> 01:13:40,960
Speaker 6: is like one of the biggest things that needs to

1583
01:13:41,000 --> 01:13:43,760
Speaker 6: be done. And it's and it's evident because almost all

1584
01:13:43,800 --> 01:13:45,720
Speaker 6: the candidates that are running for a president now talking

1585
01:13:45,760 --> 01:13:48,759
Speaker 6: about agriculture. You know, we have one of the biggest

1586
01:13:48,800 --> 01:13:51,400
Speaker 6: pineapple forms in Ghana, and I know, you know, we

1587
01:13:51,520 --> 01:13:53,960
Speaker 6: know the owner. They ship to all of Europe. Like

1588
01:13:54,040 --> 01:13:56,160
Speaker 6: you know, I didn't know that Europeans were eating ghani

1589
01:13:56,240 --> 01:14:00,080
Speaker 6: and bananas. I didn't know that, but they are. You know,

1590
01:14:00,560 --> 01:14:03,639
Speaker 6: Ghana mixed the second exports the second amount of cocoa,

1591
01:14:04,000 --> 01:14:07,040
Speaker 6: you know, and recently you know, the president is like,

1592
01:14:07,080 --> 01:14:08,640
Speaker 6: you know, we're going to try and refine our own

1593
01:14:08,680 --> 01:14:11,040
Speaker 6: coco right here in Ghana. So, you know, there's so

1594
01:14:11,120 --> 01:14:14,839
Speaker 6: many different things that are just underutilized. Like for instance,

1595
01:14:15,280 --> 01:14:18,960
Speaker 6: my partner inputs chicken and fish, Like you know, I

1596
01:14:19,040 --> 01:14:21,040
Speaker 6: was like, you know, why don't we have a chicken

1597
01:14:21,120 --> 01:14:23,600
Speaker 6: farm right here to be able to produce chicken to

1598
01:14:23,680 --> 01:14:26,439
Speaker 6: feed people in Ghana. So I think those are things

1599
01:14:26,439 --> 01:14:29,200
Speaker 6: that just there's so many different opportunities that exist not

1600
01:14:29,200 --> 01:14:32,960
Speaker 6: only in Ghana but across the continent that I think

1601
01:14:33,000 --> 01:14:35,040
Speaker 6: that as we continue to get to know each other,

1602
01:14:35,080 --> 01:14:37,519
Speaker 6: the more that they asked for in the continent, that

1603
01:14:37,640 --> 01:14:39,840
Speaker 6: you know that collaboration is going to be key and

1604
01:14:40,080 --> 01:14:43,639
Speaker 6: and and growing africas Africa's Africa is the youngest continent

1605
01:14:43,720 --> 01:14:46,559
Speaker 6: and will be for the foreseeable future. So all of

1606
01:14:46,560 --> 01:14:49,360
Speaker 6: the opportunities going there right all of the governments are

1607
01:14:49,400 --> 01:14:52,679
Speaker 6: fighting over space, you know, whether there's the Chinese or Russians.

1608
01:14:52,680 --> 01:14:55,600
Speaker 6: The Americans now are getting into the mix. You know,

1609
01:14:56,240 --> 01:14:57,840
Speaker 6: you know, black people need to get into the mix.

1610
01:14:58,680 --> 01:15:01,040
Speaker 4: So how do you market now? You market the event.

1611
01:15:01,640 --> 01:15:03,840
Speaker 6: A lot of our marketing goes to a lot of

1612
01:15:03,920 --> 01:15:07,160
Speaker 6: group group sales group. Sales is one of our biggest ones.

1613
01:15:07,520 --> 01:15:09,280
Speaker 6: We do a lot. It does. It does a lot

1614
01:15:09,320 --> 01:15:11,439
Speaker 6: of wonders for US. We run a lot of ads

1615
01:15:11,560 --> 01:15:16,800
Speaker 6: on socials, across YouTube, across Facebook, across our Instagram. We

1616
01:15:16,840 --> 01:15:20,360
Speaker 6: do a lot of placements and different on different websites

1617
01:15:20,400 --> 01:15:24,120
Speaker 6: as well, billboards around the continent. We activate in different cities,

1618
01:15:24,240 --> 01:15:26,960
Speaker 6: like we have activation coming up in La with PVO.

1619
01:15:27,880 --> 01:15:30,120
Speaker 6: PVO is a partner of ours. We've been partnering for

1620
01:15:30,120 --> 01:15:31,840
Speaker 6: a couple of years. They are young men that's side

1621
01:15:31,840 --> 01:15:35,080
Speaker 6: an organization called Positi Vibes only to celebrate you know,

1622
01:15:35,160 --> 01:15:38,519
Speaker 6: mental health awareness and they do that through their programming,

1623
01:15:38,560 --> 01:15:40,400
Speaker 6: so we partner with them. We're doing We're going to

1624
01:15:40,400 --> 01:15:43,160
Speaker 6: be African with PVO, so hopefully who have you there

1625
01:15:43,200 --> 01:15:46,639
Speaker 6: as well? You know we're doing collaborations with Africaan. That's

1626
01:15:46,680 --> 01:15:49,320
Speaker 6: another way. A lot of our activations in the US

1627
01:15:49,439 --> 01:15:54,600
Speaker 6: is one of those. We're doing Kodivoir April thirtieth, we

1628
01:15:54,640 --> 01:15:58,160
Speaker 6: have France June eighteenth. We're going to be in London

1629
01:15:59,080 --> 01:16:03,599
Speaker 6: in June as well. We have South Africa September, Kenya

1630
01:16:03,640 --> 01:16:06,919
Speaker 6: and November. So by activating all these spaces, it optimizes

1631
01:16:06,920 --> 01:16:08,600
Speaker 6: the amount of people they are able to come. We

1632
01:16:08,640 --> 01:16:12,120
Speaker 6: also have Germany at the end of August, so that

1633
01:16:12,160 --> 01:16:14,480
Speaker 6: allows us to be able to kind of connect with communities.

1634
01:16:14,560 --> 01:16:16,479
Speaker 6: Last year was the first year I went to Germany

1635
01:16:16,960 --> 01:16:20,360
Speaker 6: for hype Fest, and that brought in so many Germans

1636
01:16:20,360 --> 01:16:23,400
Speaker 6: into Ghana, and we want to continue doing that. By

1637
01:16:23,439 --> 01:16:26,880
Speaker 6: activating and celebrating in these spaces, we're building our audience.

1638
01:16:26,880 --> 01:16:28,479
Speaker 6: I'm sure you guys are seeing the same thing. By

1639
01:16:28,520 --> 01:16:31,120
Speaker 6: activating in different cities, you're seeing more people come into

1640
01:16:31,160 --> 01:16:33,880
Speaker 6: your space, and literally it's working for us. It's been

1641
01:16:33,920 --> 01:16:36,160
Speaker 6: working for us, and we're looking to do that, and

1642
01:16:36,160 --> 01:16:38,200
Speaker 6: we're also looking for other traditional ways to do it,

1643
01:16:38,200 --> 01:16:42,799
Speaker 6: whether it's like placements on podcasts, whether it's through medium

1644
01:16:42,880 --> 01:16:46,040
Speaker 6: drops and appearances. Apparently Hulu has allowing you to do

1645
01:16:46,120 --> 01:16:49,200
Speaker 6: advertisements on Hulu now for a fee, So we're looking

1646
01:16:49,200 --> 01:16:51,760
Speaker 6: into those kind of opportunities as well to kind of

1647
01:16:51,760 --> 01:16:53,840
Speaker 6: grow the audience but also keep it organic. I think

1648
01:16:53,880 --> 01:16:55,920
Speaker 6: one of the beauties about our festival is you don't

1649
01:16:55,920 --> 01:16:58,960
Speaker 6: feel lost. Although it's big and it's a stadium and

1650
01:16:59,120 --> 01:17:00,880
Speaker 6: it takes a lot of work walking to get around,

1651
01:17:01,280 --> 01:17:05,080
Speaker 6: it still feels like a small community of people, and

1652
01:17:05,479 --> 01:17:07,759
Speaker 6: I think that that's what people love and I don't

1653
01:17:07,760 --> 01:17:09,599
Speaker 6: ever want to lose that by just kind of making

1654
01:17:09,640 --> 01:17:13,160
Speaker 6: it so big that people can't even see each other.

1655
01:17:13,720 --> 01:17:15,600
Speaker 6: The beauty is like you can turn left and you

1656
01:17:15,640 --> 01:17:17,559
Speaker 6: see Charlemagne or your guitar right and you can see

1657
01:17:17,560 --> 01:17:19,719
Speaker 6: what was in the Saint John. Like that's the beauty

1658
01:17:19,760 --> 01:17:22,479
Speaker 6: of being in that space and everybody is comfortable and

1659
01:17:22,479 --> 01:17:24,679
Speaker 6: nobody feels attacked or or bother.

1660
01:17:25,120 --> 01:17:28,080
Speaker 5: Charlamagne was at the Nigeria or the Strip club.

1661
01:17:27,880 --> 01:17:34,680
Speaker 6: In the first one. Yeah, Silver Fox is actually pretty big,

1662
01:17:35,640 --> 01:17:36,040
Speaker 6: is dope?

1663
01:17:36,439 --> 01:17:40,240
Speaker 7: Do you see the festival expanding not only in a

1664
01:17:40,280 --> 01:17:43,720
Speaker 7: crowd but in other countries on the continent where it's

1665
01:17:43,720 --> 01:17:46,920
Speaker 7: like people want to have a similar type situation for

1666
01:17:47,080 --> 01:17:52,360
Speaker 7: their for their country. You said South Africa, you have activations, Nigeria, Morocco,

1667
01:17:52,479 --> 01:17:53,120
Speaker 7: like appreciate it.

1668
01:17:53,200 --> 01:17:55,679
Speaker 6: Yeah, We've gotten a lot of invitations from different tourism

1669
01:17:55,760 --> 01:18:02,559
Speaker 6: authorities like Uganda, South Africa, Rwanda to come in senegog

1670
01:18:02,760 --> 01:18:05,120
Speaker 6: to come in and like recreate what we've been able

1671
01:18:05,120 --> 01:18:08,040
Speaker 6: to create in Ghana, but we never like what I

1672
01:18:08,080 --> 01:18:10,360
Speaker 6: don't want to do is like say I'm going to

1673
01:18:10,400 --> 01:18:13,720
Speaker 6: have a festival in South Africa the way I have

1674
01:18:13,760 --> 01:18:16,000
Speaker 6: it in Ghana. I don't want to do that. My

1675
01:18:16,080 --> 01:18:18,120
Speaker 6: whole goal is to be able to partner with somebody

1676
01:18:18,160 --> 01:18:20,000
Speaker 6: down there and they can own it and we can

1677
01:18:20,080 --> 01:18:22,600
Speaker 6: own a piece of it, because I think that in

1678
01:18:23,400 --> 01:18:25,799
Speaker 6: going into Africa, we have to have a different mindset

1679
01:18:25,880 --> 01:18:29,240
Speaker 6: than we've had here, right, we have to have more

1680
01:18:29,240 --> 01:18:31,920
Speaker 6: of a community mindset. I think that's the beauty about

1681
01:18:32,400 --> 01:18:34,720
Speaker 6: living in Africa. It's about the community we all eat.

1682
01:18:34,840 --> 01:18:37,479
Speaker 6: There's more of us by working together. So for us,

1683
01:18:37,760 --> 01:18:40,799
Speaker 6: it's about community buildings. So if we go to South Africa,

1684
01:18:40,800 --> 01:18:42,519
Speaker 6: we're looking to work with a partner in South Africa.

1685
01:18:42,560 --> 01:18:44,240
Speaker 6: We all work with a partner in South Africa. The

1686
01:18:44,280 --> 01:18:46,479
Speaker 6: same thing in Kenya. So I don't need to own

1687
01:18:46,520 --> 01:18:48,280
Speaker 6: it because I can't tell a Kenyan story the way

1688
01:18:48,280 --> 01:18:50,519
Speaker 6: I can tell a Ghanian story, but they can't. So

1689
01:18:50,560 --> 01:18:52,400
Speaker 6: how do I give them the resources that I've learned

1690
01:18:52,400 --> 01:18:54,559
Speaker 6: in Ghana to be able to kind of help them

1691
01:18:54,720 --> 01:18:56,920
Speaker 6: recreate this and then they can own it and then

1692
01:18:56,960 --> 01:18:59,280
Speaker 6: we are part of it. That's the model that we've

1693
01:18:59,320 --> 01:19:02,040
Speaker 6: always thought for ourselves, and that's what we want to do,

1694
01:19:02,080 --> 01:19:04,679
Speaker 6: and that's why we're creating new services to be able

1695
01:19:04,720 --> 01:19:05,080
Speaker 6: to do that.

1696
01:19:05,640 --> 01:19:10,160
Speaker 7: To talk about the philanthropic of Apple Future, I know

1697
01:19:10,479 --> 01:19:14,479
Speaker 7: you know you guys have given back money to health

1698
01:19:14,640 --> 01:19:18,519
Speaker 7: and border initiatives throughout the country, So talk about that other.

1699
01:19:18,840 --> 01:19:19,040
Speaker 5: Yeah.

1700
01:19:19,080 --> 01:19:21,880
Speaker 6: So I'm a brother five ue Siment Fraternity Incorporated, and

1701
01:19:22,360 --> 01:19:25,400
Speaker 6: part of my mantra is always to give back right

1702
01:19:25,439 --> 01:19:29,120
Speaker 6: cultural service for humanity. And I've always thought that if

1703
01:19:29,120 --> 01:19:31,000
Speaker 6: somebody's going to give back, it's not enough to just

1704
01:19:31,040 --> 01:19:33,840
Speaker 6: try and trip them into giving back money. You have

1705
01:19:33,880 --> 01:19:36,559
Speaker 6: to give them incentivized. I've always done that through whether

1706
01:19:36,600 --> 01:19:38,840
Speaker 6: it's parties, like you know, you throw a party, buy

1707
01:19:38,840 --> 01:19:41,280
Speaker 6: a ticket, I'll use I'll give them on your behalf,

1708
01:19:41,400 --> 01:19:44,120
Speaker 6: like you've always given back. My partner and I both brothers,

1709
01:19:44,200 --> 01:19:45,840
Speaker 6: So we're like, you know what, this is what we're

1710
01:19:45,840 --> 01:19:48,440
Speaker 6: going to do. We're going to invite people to participate

1711
01:19:48,439 --> 01:19:50,920
Speaker 6: in some of the givebacks that we're doing, but we

1712
01:19:51,040 --> 01:19:54,000
Speaker 6: are also going to use ticket sales and give out

1713
01:19:54,000 --> 01:19:56,760
Speaker 6: five percent of the ticket sales to whatever charity calls

1714
01:19:56,760 --> 01:20:00,320
Speaker 6: that we're looking to to support. The year one, we

1715
01:20:00,360 --> 01:20:02,920
Speaker 6: work with water Aid, which is our company that is

1716
01:20:02,960 --> 01:20:06,559
Speaker 6: all over the world actually, but basically they reduced limits

1717
01:20:08,240 --> 01:20:10,479
Speaker 6: lack of access to water and build toilets for people.

1718
01:20:11,000 --> 01:20:13,840
Speaker 6: They're still people who are using non traditional toilets that

1719
01:20:13,880 --> 01:20:16,400
Speaker 6: you could flush, you know, either the lack of water

1720
01:20:16,560 --> 01:20:21,000
Speaker 6: or their toilet in a hole. So we're building that out.

1721
01:20:21,240 --> 01:20:24,120
Speaker 6: We built out so we've donated to them, but then

1722
01:20:24,160 --> 01:20:27,799
Speaker 6: we adopted the school. We worked with Twitter to remodel

1723
01:20:27,840 --> 01:20:31,639
Speaker 6: the school. We built the new ceiling, new floors, fed

1724
01:20:31,640 --> 01:20:33,479
Speaker 6: them for a year. We did that for a couple

1725
01:20:33,479 --> 01:20:37,000
Speaker 6: of years, and then recently we've been actually just taking

1726
01:20:37,000 --> 01:20:40,000
Speaker 6: that action on the road, so whether it's doing a

1727
01:20:40,040 --> 01:20:42,400
Speaker 6: thousand meals and giving it out in the community or

1728
01:20:42,400 --> 01:20:46,719
Speaker 6: giving out school supplies. Last year we partnered with Madachi Foundation,

1729
01:20:47,040 --> 01:20:51,320
Speaker 6: which is one of my good bros, actually created a

1730
01:20:51,400 --> 01:20:55,280
Speaker 6: foundation that provides sneakers to students. He found people in

1731
01:20:55,280 --> 01:20:58,120
Speaker 6: his community in Ghana their barrier to going to school

1732
01:20:58,160 --> 01:20:59,960
Speaker 6: was they didn't have shoes, so they had to walk

1733
01:21:00,280 --> 01:21:02,360
Speaker 6: to go to school. So he wanted to be able

1734
01:21:02,360 --> 01:21:05,439
Speaker 6: to bring sneakers back to Ghana so that he can

1735
01:21:05,479 --> 01:21:08,040
Speaker 6: provide them with shoes to wear on their way to

1736
01:21:08,040 --> 01:21:09,760
Speaker 6: school and some of that. That's some of the work

1737
01:21:09,800 --> 01:21:12,160
Speaker 6: we work with him to kind of create a like

1738
01:21:12,640 --> 01:21:15,880
Speaker 6: in Ghana when the year was over. It wasn't like

1739
01:21:16,000 --> 01:21:17,680
Speaker 6: just a cut day. It was like we call it

1740
01:21:17,720 --> 01:21:21,400
Speaker 6: our day and it was a special day because it's

1741
01:21:21,439 --> 01:21:26,280
Speaker 6: funny because the things that we care about is weird.

1742
01:21:26,439 --> 01:21:28,519
Speaker 6: It was our day. But you would all bringing like

1743
01:21:28,560 --> 01:21:31,160
Speaker 6: your best meals and that's how you compete it out here.

1744
01:21:31,240 --> 01:21:33,000
Speaker 6: You know, you were your sneakers, you be your best

1745
01:21:33,040 --> 01:21:35,479
Speaker 6: fit because you had a dress down there or something

1746
01:21:35,520 --> 01:21:38,000
Speaker 6: like that. In Ghana, the last day was our day.

1747
01:21:38,000 --> 01:21:40,559
Speaker 6: It was like you basically have a feast, like everybody

1748
01:21:40,560 --> 01:21:42,439
Speaker 6: brings their food and shows off. I got the best

1749
01:21:42,479 --> 01:21:45,120
Speaker 6: snacks something like that. So we recreated that experience for

1750
01:21:45,200 --> 01:21:49,280
Speaker 6: kids and gave them sneakers, face painting, engaging them, playing

1751
01:21:49,320 --> 01:21:52,639
Speaker 6: with them, you know, giving them, you know, breathing to them,

1752
01:21:52,920 --> 01:21:55,960
Speaker 6: enthus that nature. And this gives our audience and attendees

1753
01:21:56,000 --> 01:21:59,120
Speaker 6: an opportunity to really engage with the local with the

1754
01:21:59,120 --> 01:22:02,599
Speaker 6: local community, see what's what's important to them. So we

1755
01:22:02,640 --> 01:22:04,600
Speaker 6: want to give people a three sixty experience. When you

1756
01:22:04,640 --> 01:22:06,200
Speaker 6: come to Ghana, you're going to see a high life,

1757
01:22:06,240 --> 01:22:08,519
Speaker 6: right but depending if you're coming with American dollar or

1758
01:22:08,560 --> 01:22:11,519
Speaker 6: British pound or euros, you're going to stay in the

1759
01:22:11,600 --> 01:22:13,759
Speaker 6: nice places you're going to eat at, the nice places,

1760
01:22:13,800 --> 01:22:16,080
Speaker 6: you're going to go to, the nice parties, But we

1761
01:22:16,120 --> 01:22:18,680
Speaker 6: don't want you to lose out on understanding what the

1762
01:22:19,040 --> 01:22:22,960
Speaker 6: entire experience is like, how the people on the ground

1763
01:22:23,000 --> 01:22:24,719
Speaker 6: are living, what is what is it like to borrow?

1764
01:22:24,760 --> 01:22:26,599
Speaker 6: What does it like to try the food? What does

1765
01:22:26,760 --> 01:22:29,040
Speaker 6: you know? How does poverty look? You know what I'm saying.

1766
01:22:29,040 --> 01:22:32,120
Speaker 6: What are opportunities? You know if they're schools, things that

1767
01:22:32,200 --> 01:22:34,519
Speaker 6: nature exchange program, those are things that we're looking at

1768
01:22:35,040 --> 01:22:36,960
Speaker 6: trying to figure out how to how to create. But

1769
01:22:37,080 --> 01:22:39,439
Speaker 6: it gives other people opportunity to see to idea for

1770
01:22:39,479 --> 01:22:43,000
Speaker 6: themselves how they can give back, will support. So those

1771
01:22:43,040 --> 01:22:43,840
Speaker 6: are something things we do.

1772
01:22:44,120 --> 01:22:45,960
Speaker 4: So talk about changing the name.

1773
01:22:46,479 --> 01:22:51,040
Speaker 6: Yeah, so you know for a long time, obviously everybody

1774
01:22:51,120 --> 01:22:55,599
Speaker 6: knows we will sue by Coachella, and that was one

1775
01:22:55,640 --> 01:22:59,000
Speaker 6: of the major driver reasons why we accelerate the change

1776
01:22:59,000 --> 01:23:02,000
Speaker 6: to the name. But also we were also growing beyond

1777
01:23:02,080 --> 01:23:05,839
Speaker 6: just being Afriachella. What we anticipate we have for future

1778
01:23:06,000 --> 01:23:10,160
Speaker 6: is recreating a new world for the diaspora in reality

1779
01:23:10,360 --> 01:23:15,840
Speaker 6: where we connect and have our space to congregate and

1780
01:23:15,880 --> 01:23:20,200
Speaker 6: be able to build together. The expo the museum and

1781
01:23:20,240 --> 01:23:23,519
Speaker 6: some of the experiences we're creating around the experiences what

1782
01:23:23,560 --> 01:23:25,960
Speaker 6: we consider the future. If you look at all of

1783
01:23:26,000 --> 01:23:31,240
Speaker 6: these business conferences that are happening some at Harvard, Georgetown, MIT, Stanford,

1784
01:23:31,320 --> 01:23:33,719
Speaker 6: all over the place, but they're talking about Africa outside

1785
01:23:33,720 --> 01:23:37,120
Speaker 6: of Africa US just at the conference happened in DC.

1786
01:23:37,520 --> 01:23:39,800
Speaker 6: Outside of Africa. Our opportunity is to be able to

1787
01:23:39,800 --> 01:23:43,400
Speaker 6: bring bring that energy back to the continent. We never

1788
01:23:43,520 --> 01:23:47,000
Speaker 6: want to activate the festival self outside of the continent.

1789
01:23:47,080 --> 01:23:48,760
Speaker 6: Our whole goal is to get more people to come

1790
01:23:48,800 --> 01:23:51,559
Speaker 6: back to the continent. So we consider what we're doing

1791
01:23:51,600 --> 01:23:52,800
Speaker 6: and what we are going to be doing for the

1792
01:23:52,840 --> 01:23:56,240
Speaker 6: next couple of years, the future and after future just made.

1793
01:23:56,760 --> 01:23:58,519
Speaker 4: So what happened with the lawsuit? Did you settle?

1794
01:23:58,760 --> 01:24:04,040
Speaker 6: Yeah, we settled, We settled out. They had points, we

1795
01:24:04,080 --> 01:24:07,120
Speaker 6: had points, We had a mark in Ghana, they had

1796
01:24:07,120 --> 01:24:09,240
Speaker 6: a marque here, and we were just trying to figure

1797
01:24:09,240 --> 01:24:12,280
Speaker 6: out what was what was the best option for us, uh,

1798
01:24:12,640 --> 01:24:14,840
Speaker 6: you know, and after a while, because you know, it

1799
01:24:14,960 --> 01:24:17,639
Speaker 6: just was more expensive than it needed to be uh,

1800
01:24:17,720 --> 01:24:19,519
Speaker 6: and it was just easier for us to just kind

1801
01:24:19,520 --> 01:24:21,080
Speaker 6: of like come to an agreement to kind of like

1802
01:24:21,160 --> 01:24:24,519
Speaker 6: leave each other alone, and and that required us to

1803
01:24:24,560 --> 01:24:26,599
Speaker 6: also change our name as well, and we were we

1804
01:24:26,600 --> 01:24:27,840
Speaker 6: were amenable to it as well.

1805
01:24:28,120 --> 01:24:33,479
Speaker 7: After future it is so how long after the event

1806
01:24:33,600 --> 01:24:35,880
Speaker 7: is finished before you start preparing for.

1807
01:24:35,840 --> 01:24:36,519
Speaker 5: The next one.

1808
01:24:37,000 --> 01:24:39,400
Speaker 6: Immediately as soon as the event is finished, we do

1809
01:24:39,439 --> 01:24:42,200
Speaker 6: a post mortem with the whole team just to kind

1810
01:24:42,200 --> 01:24:44,759
Speaker 6: of figure out, you know, what are the opportunities for growth,

1811
01:24:45,439 --> 01:24:47,519
Speaker 6: what went well, what do we like where we want

1812
01:24:47,520 --> 01:24:50,280
Speaker 6: to keep I think as far as the structure of

1813
01:24:50,280 --> 01:24:53,000
Speaker 6: the event, we just got to the perfect structure that

1814
01:24:53,040 --> 01:24:55,240
Speaker 6: we like as far as how people are going to

1815
01:24:55,280 --> 01:24:57,960
Speaker 6: navigate through the space, so that takes a lot off

1816
01:24:57,960 --> 01:24:59,720
Speaker 6: of our plate. But each year comes to a new

1817
01:24:59,760 --> 01:25:02,919
Speaker 6: child that we have to face, you know. Twenty seventeen

1818
01:25:03,080 --> 01:25:05,439
Speaker 6: was we just didn't have money. Twenty eighteen was just

1819
01:25:05,520 --> 01:25:08,759
Speaker 6: kind of navigating a new space. Twenty nineteen was scaling

1820
01:25:08,840 --> 01:25:12,519
Speaker 6: way beyond where the team was at. Twenty twenty was

1821
01:25:12,520 --> 01:25:16,280
Speaker 6: the pandemic, twenty twenty one was our first major artist

1822
01:25:16,320 --> 01:25:19,280
Speaker 6: like west Kid, right, and last year was two days.

1823
01:25:19,360 --> 01:25:22,400
Speaker 6: So now we've gotten to our I guess, final form

1824
01:25:22,439 --> 01:25:24,080
Speaker 6: of what the festival was going to look like, and

1825
01:25:24,080 --> 01:25:26,439
Speaker 6: now it's just about making sure it kind of grows

1826
01:25:27,160 --> 01:25:28,799
Speaker 6: organically as it stands.

1827
01:25:29,240 --> 01:25:31,040
Speaker 4: Did you announce the lineup yet for this year?

1828
01:25:31,200 --> 01:25:33,439
Speaker 6: No, No, we're looking to do that at the end

1829
01:25:33,479 --> 01:25:36,719
Speaker 6: of April or Africa Day. Yeah, I mean yeah, Africa

1830
01:25:36,760 --> 01:25:39,680
Speaker 6: Day is when we were looking to announce that. We

1831
01:25:39,720 --> 01:25:42,680
Speaker 6: actually never used to announce the lineup until like the

1832
01:25:42,760 --> 01:25:44,639
Speaker 6: last month because we didn't want people to just buy

1833
01:25:44,760 --> 01:25:46,639
Speaker 6: tickets just for the artists. We wanted people to buy

1834
01:25:46,640 --> 01:25:49,759
Speaker 6: tickets for the experience. But recently we've been like announcing

1835
01:25:49,760 --> 01:25:51,800
Speaker 6: all of it together to kind of, you know, give

1836
01:25:51,840 --> 01:25:54,200
Speaker 6: people ample time to be able to prepare to buy

1837
01:25:54,240 --> 01:25:57,160
Speaker 6: the tickets because the ticket prices are too high, too

1838
01:25:57,240 --> 01:25:58,080
Speaker 6: high for no reason.

1839
01:25:59,640 --> 01:26:03,240
Speaker 4: Well, been a pleasure, definitely got to connect when we

1840
01:26:03,360 --> 01:26:04,040
Speaker 4: come out there.

1841
01:26:03,960 --> 01:26:05,559
Speaker 6: For sure, for sure, we're going to make sure you

1842
01:26:05,600 --> 01:26:07,320
Speaker 6: have a good time. We're gonna take out as a fox.

1843
01:26:08,360 --> 01:26:10,120
Speaker 6: We're gonna take that to a fox. We're gonna take

1844
01:26:10,120 --> 01:26:12,240
Speaker 6: out a twist and make sure you're good out there.

1845
01:26:12,320 --> 01:26:14,519
Speaker 6: I mean, the one thing that I could, you know,

1846
01:26:15,160 --> 01:26:17,400
Speaker 6: I used to never promise about. I could promise you

1847
01:26:17,439 --> 01:26:19,880
Speaker 6: a good time in Ghana if you are open to

1848
01:26:20,479 --> 01:26:23,400
Speaker 6: really just kind of experiencing new things, trying new things,

1849
01:26:23,520 --> 01:26:26,320
Speaker 6: meeting people and just kind of talking to people. You

1850
01:26:26,560 --> 01:26:29,240
Speaker 6: have an amazing experience, like you know, nobody is really

1851
01:26:29,320 --> 01:26:33,040
Speaker 6: there to bother you, to haggle you, to hassle you. Yeah,

1852
01:26:33,040 --> 01:26:34,640
Speaker 6: people are going to ask you for some money. You know,

1853
01:26:34,680 --> 01:26:36,160
Speaker 6: you look like you have money. People are definitely going

1854
01:26:36,240 --> 01:26:37,720
Speaker 6: to ask you for some money. But I think you

1855
01:26:37,760 --> 01:26:39,960
Speaker 6: can experience that anywhere around the world. But I think

1856
01:26:40,160 --> 01:26:42,599
Speaker 6: the beauty about the people in Ghana and what drives

1857
01:26:42,680 --> 01:26:44,840
Speaker 6: me is that everybody seems happy, right. They don't have

1858
01:26:44,920 --> 01:26:48,120
Speaker 6: to have much to be happy. And that kind of

1859
01:26:48,240 --> 01:26:50,600
Speaker 6: drew me to the content. It kind of made me

1860
01:26:50,720 --> 01:26:53,120
Speaker 6: understand like I was making good money here. I had

1861
01:26:53,160 --> 01:26:54,880
Speaker 6: a good job. You know, I had an apartment, I

1862
01:26:54,880 --> 01:26:57,439
Speaker 6: had everything I wanted. But you know, sometimes you could

1863
01:26:57,439 --> 01:26:59,240
Speaker 6: just come home, get off the train and be frustrated.

1864
01:26:59,600 --> 01:27:01,720
Speaker 6: But there they didn't have much, and I would go

1865
01:27:01,760 --> 01:27:04,360
Speaker 6: there and they were just so happy in some cases,

1866
01:27:04,400 --> 01:27:06,160
Speaker 6: and I thought that that there's a beauty in that.

1867
01:27:06,680 --> 01:27:09,799
Speaker 6: There's a beauty and just kind of like people being happy.

1868
01:27:09,840 --> 01:27:11,160
Speaker 6: And I think it has a lot to do with

1869
01:27:11,800 --> 01:27:14,519
Speaker 6: the experience of just kind of seeing everyone around you

1870
01:27:14,960 --> 01:27:17,759
Speaker 6: and enjoying them and everything that go into the beauty

1871
01:27:17,760 --> 01:27:21,040
Speaker 6: and the struggle, I guess for some people. But also

1872
01:27:21,520 --> 01:27:23,000
Speaker 6: on the flip side, there are people that are doing

1873
01:27:23,080 --> 01:27:25,879
Speaker 6: pretty well, like they don't ever have to come to America,

1874
01:27:25,960 --> 01:27:28,280
Speaker 6: like they can get on a plane, come here, buy

1875
01:27:28,320 --> 01:27:30,160
Speaker 6: clothes and go right back the next day, like you know,

1876
01:27:30,600 --> 01:27:34,840
Speaker 6: you know, and you know the disparity. There's beauty in it,

1877
01:27:34,880 --> 01:27:36,960
Speaker 6: but there's also struggle in it. And I think that

1878
01:27:37,400 --> 01:27:39,920
Speaker 6: as more black people come into the space, it's going

1879
01:27:40,000 --> 01:27:42,120
Speaker 6: to change. It's changed so much over the past seven years,

1880
01:27:42,120 --> 01:27:44,240
Speaker 6: so I look forward to seeing how much it's going

1881
01:27:44,320 --> 01:27:47,400
Speaker 6: to change in the next ten because it's definitely changing

1882
01:27:47,439 --> 01:27:50,599
Speaker 6: for the positive. People are questioning things, people are pushing

1883
01:27:50,600 --> 01:27:53,759
Speaker 6: government to do things, people are creating content, people are connecting.

1884
01:27:53,840 --> 01:27:57,040
Speaker 6: So it's beautiful. So I'm looking forward to hosting you, Ghana.

1885
01:27:58,320 --> 01:28:01,240
Speaker 7: I'm it, I know, the good Will ambassador of tourism.

1886
01:28:01,280 --> 01:28:05,960
Speaker 7: So I'm looking forward to being Russ. You're gonna be fine,

1887
01:28:06,360 --> 01:28:08,160
Speaker 7: and Ghana. Ain't got worried about nothing.

1888
01:28:08,200 --> 01:28:10,920
Speaker 6: Anything you need like you know, pretty much a phone

1889
01:28:10,960 --> 01:28:14,360
Speaker 6: call away or a discussion like you know, from visas

1890
01:28:14,400 --> 01:28:17,040
Speaker 6: to whatever you need, cars, anything you need.

1891
01:28:17,200 --> 01:28:19,559
Speaker 5: I'm excited. I'm excited for sure, thank you.

1892
01:28:20,439 --> 01:28:23,760
Speaker 4: All right, gosh, there you have it all right.

1893
01:28:23,760 --> 01:28:26,920
Speaker 5: We just got to say this right, best Jolla Rice

1894
01:28:27,080 --> 01:28:28,800
Speaker 5: is in Nigeria? Is it Ghana? Man?

1895
01:28:28,800 --> 01:28:31,240
Speaker 6: That's Ghana all day easily. Yeah, come to a crowd

1896
01:28:31,280 --> 01:28:33,320
Speaker 6: restaurant right here in New York. We got we got,

1897
01:28:33,320 --> 01:28:36,120
Speaker 6: we got the best your Off Rice. We wanted twice twice.

1898
01:28:36,320 --> 01:28:38,920
Speaker 6: Actually got to invite y'all. We have a favor a

1899
01:28:39,000 --> 01:28:43,600
Speaker 6: crowd restaurant. Both of them. We are Burnside Avenue and

1900
01:28:43,680 --> 01:28:48,439
Speaker 6: Davidson and then we have on twenty sixty five Adam

1901
01:28:48,479 --> 01:28:53,000
Speaker 6: playing Power Boulevard. Both both the restaurant that's one seventh

1902
01:28:53,680 --> 01:28:58,040
Speaker 6: seventh the street Adam Clay and Power between.

1903
01:28:58,960 --> 01:29:03,719
Speaker 7: That's crazy. The Thanksgiving, I promise you. That's two years ago.

1904
01:29:04,160 --> 01:29:06,360
Speaker 5: I was like, we're not cooking this yet, and that's

1905
01:29:06,360 --> 01:29:07,799
Speaker 5: what we went. Oh that's amazing.

1906
01:29:07,800 --> 01:29:09,120
Speaker 6: I'm glad. I don't be like that too.

1907
01:29:09,520 --> 01:29:09,720
Speaker 5: You know.

1908
01:29:09,760 --> 01:29:12,280
Speaker 6: We actually we do this this thing called Battle Joel

1909
01:29:12,320 --> 01:29:14,519
Speaker 6: Off right here in New York City. So it's like

1910
01:29:14,520 --> 01:29:18,040
Speaker 6: a basketball game and a competition with je Off Rice

1911
01:29:18,160 --> 01:29:20,799
Speaker 6: and you know, Accry the restaurant on both of them.

1912
01:29:20,960 --> 01:29:22,960
Speaker 6: So I definitely hope you'll pull up and I definitely

1913
01:29:22,960 --> 01:29:24,200
Speaker 6: want to invite you to the event too.

1914
01:29:24,200 --> 01:29:26,400
Speaker 4: It's gonna be good. Yeah, definitely, definitely gotta come to

1915
01:29:26,439 --> 01:29:30,400
Speaker 4: the restaurant. And what's the website, the social media and

1916
01:29:30,400 --> 01:29:30,720
Speaker 4: all that.

1917
01:29:30,760 --> 01:29:33,879
Speaker 6: Absolutely so you can find us online at afro Future,

1918
01:29:34,720 --> 01:29:38,000
Speaker 6: on Twitter, on Instagram, on TikTok LinkedIn any of those

1919
01:29:38,040 --> 01:29:41,920
Speaker 6: were there. Afrofuture dot com was also our website, so

1920
01:29:42,120 --> 01:29:43,880
Speaker 6: looking forward to hosting Yadia as well.

1921
01:29:44,200 --> 01:29:46,639
Speaker 5: Yeah, I appreciate it, man, that's dope you have any

1922
01:29:47,000 --> 01:29:48,320
Speaker 5: I'm already been patriot.

1923
01:29:48,000 --> 01:29:50,439
Speaker 6: With Yeah, I'm glad that you enjoyed.

1924
01:29:50,920 --> 01:29:51,840
Speaker 5: Love is love, y'all.

1925
01:29:52,120 --> 01:29:53,519
Speaker 6: Thank you.

1926
01:29:55,720 --> 01:29:59,879
Speaker 4: My graduates from my school being forced bad drop.

1927
01:30:03,000 --> 01:30:17,360
Speaker 1: Drop an illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a

1928
01:30:17,439 --> 01:30:20,960
Speaker 1: child in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al

1929
01:30:21,040 --> 01:30:25,840
Speaker 1: Salvador accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged

1930
01:30:25,880 --> 01:30:29,800
Speaker 1: with filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are

1931
01:30:29,840 --> 01:30:33,360
Speaker 1: just some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of

1932
01:30:33,360 --> 01:30:34,240
Speaker 1: President Donald J.

1933
01:30:34,320 --> 01:30:36,719
Speaker 2: Trump's leadership. I'm Christy Noman.

1934
01:30:36,640 --> 01:30:40,559
Speaker 1: The United States Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump,

1935
01:30:40,840 --> 01:30:44,519
Speaker 1: Attempted illegal border crossings are at the lowest levels ever

1936
01:30:44,600 --> 01:30:48,479
Speaker 1: recorded and over one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested.

1937
01:30:48,760 --> 01:30:52,320
Speaker 1: If you are here illegally, your next you will be

1938
01:30:52,360 --> 01:30:56,240
Speaker 1: fine nearly one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned, and deported.

1939
01:30:56,720 --> 01:30:57,879
Speaker 2: You will never return.

1940
01:30:58,200 --> 01:31:01,240
Speaker 1: But if you register using our CBP home app and

1941
01:31:01,320 --> 01:31:04,200
Speaker 1: leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.

1942
01:31:04,560 --> 01:31:06,839
Speaker 2: Do what's right. Leave now.

1943
01:31:07,120 --> 01:31:11,919
Speaker 1: Under President Trump America's laws, border and families will be protected.

1944
01:31:12,000 --> 01:31:14,160
Speaker 3: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security,