#113 - Desto Dubb

like peak a little pump. You were always with Pump and you had always had that's an awful awful lot of cough syrup. Started with the Dickey shit, right, well, I had. I started with like a T shirt that I made, you know what I mean. It's just's a T shirt that I made. I got really started. I got arrested it like probably like five four years ago or whatever. The cop pulled me out the car and he said, hey, that's an awful lot of cough shirt because he found all the pints in the backseat of

the car, you know what I mean. And then from then on, it's just like it's just always being like this viral clip. And then I always made clothes. So one day I'm just like, you know, I'm steadily like bleaching and tie dwying other people's clothes and trying to like do stuff to other people's stuff. But I never had nothing that was mine. And then I literally was just there one day like bro, why don't I just put this on the shirt? Like just that's an awful

lot of coughs. So and then ever since then, it's just I put it on the shirt. Started with one T shirt I used to catch the bus to the slass and swap meat. You know, I'll get them heat pressed on, like twelve shirts, give away ten sell to the two I made, I'll use two hours sold. I'll use that money to make some more. Damn. And it's crazy too because like during that era, like that was really like that was when like leen was really booming,

the drug use in hip hop. I mean it still is, right, but I mean like it was like, yeah, it was like really booming. But it's crazy that that all kind of started from an actual interaction you had from getting arrested. Nigga turned the negative to the positive people. Yeah no, wow, did you end up doing time or over that? No? No, no, no, I got a lawyer. I got everything situated. Kind of was like a dad reject. But I don't know where that came from. This isn't even in my car, bro,

I'm using somebody else's car. Did y'all plint that there? I have no regulation that that was ever there. That's It's a beautiful thing, man. But you know, I know you had like an option. There was a point in time where you could have went on the road a

little pump, but instead you didn't. Right, yeah, well, you know, it just got to a point where like me and Pum was so close because he was literally like you know when you booming at first, and as an artist, La is like the capital of the music game, you know what I mean. You know, you can do more here in a month than you can, I mean in a day that you can do anywhere else in a month.

You know. So he was living out here, he was being out here a lot, and I just, you know, always messed with him because he always like a good dude, you know what I mean, a good kid. Actually he wasn't even a child, like fifteen, yeah, you know what I mean. I'm just knowing these La streets and how they are. I just told him like, you know, like, Bro, I don't want nothing from you at all, never have I never take anything. I don't want nothing. I just want to make sure you safe, bro, Like make sure

you're safe. Because we were just coming off the No Jumper tour and that's when I literally they was on tour. I bought a van, filled it up with merch. You just followed the tour all the way around. And that was super early because that was even before No Jumper had really really blown up. Adam Super him Super Adam

was a cam girl on that girl. Everybody Smoke Purp Pump Yeah, yeah, all of them, and it's yeah, no, that's crazy, like because that was before Pump was even Pump because I met That's when the big one, because I met Pump at uh my homie trap Zilla's crib and in Panoramic City Trap because they used to go over to the Traps house and pick up packs and like you would go over there and they'd be like all these little viral kids that yeah, like fucking six or nine or Pump or smoke Purp or fat Nick

or whoever the fuck germ. Like it was like, bro, that it was like the SoundCloud Castle it was like, what is that one show a movie called Speaker City or something. It just fucking pounds a weed everywhere, fucking dogs, kids, all kinds of wild shit going on in Panorama City. And I met Little Pump and I was like, Yo, this is crazy because this is like a child like kid. Bro. Bro. Yeah, it was a wild like time. But you know, I just talked to I had fat Nick up here a

few days ago, and I told him. I was like, hey, bro, not for nothing. But whenever I talk about twenty seventeen twenty, like in the twenty sixteen twenty seventeen twenty eighteen, I was kind of referred to it as like the Dark Age of hip hop. It was like when like half emo half hip hop. It was like, yeah, it was that. And it was also the age of like people were just getting signed over ig antics. Like there was like yo, I think Supreme Patty got a record deal. You know

what I'm saying. Like there was like it was it was the dark Age for the music industry because there was so much bullshit that was getting signed. Like think about what was that kid's name that we talked aout out who said he was a clone like kid Boo got a fucking record deal and his music is terrible, like he got it was just so much shit, and you know what it was was everyone was trying to

get the next pump. They realized at that time that, Okay, we're looking for people that make music to build them a fan base. When we have these kids that's on Instagram that already have fan bases. They have followers. Followers equals fans sometimes sometimes not always well back then, yeah, sometimes at that time, if you had a million or not even a million, you could have three hundred thousand, but your antics was getting you twenty thousand a week,

ten thousand a week. You know, your your engagements, that's what they're looking at, your engagements, your followers, how many followers you get it? How many people are watching this post? And they were just the same thing with YouTube, same thing with my Space. People were getting signed off of these things Instagram. Like you'd be like, dude, Like it'd be like guy that guy like little nar right, who's

a good dude. Right, But he would just do wild shit on ig and got a record deal because he was just blowing ship up and firing bazookas and just do it all kind of ill shit, And it was like, man, like what happens when the music doesn't match? The fuck shit? Because if eventually you got to come through with that music, eventually do and some people you can't just keep out doing yourself on Instagram because you're going yourself out. Yeah, you're gonna end up like the what was that? Dude?

Did John Cabana do? What was What do you think about Boom Gang? You end up like that fucking guy. You know what I'm saying, Like went too crazy? Went too crazy? But it's crazy because you were really a part of that whole era integrate. You were there, bro, I was there orchestrated, making sure they were straight, making sure they didn't take too much of that, do too much of this, you know what I mean? Like I

was around all of them. That's when I like, people don't know I did tattoos, so like you know a lot of these kids, Like I tatted Boom Gang face before I tied it pump Face, I was tied at

Smoke Purp. I tied a lot of people. I even tatt at Nipsey, So like a lot of these people, like when that phase was going on, I was going around them selling them probably probably going around and doing the tattoos, you know what I mean, going around, you know, selling them my merch or giving them my merch because if they wear it and they got a fan base,

it's a movie. What what was it like kind of being the adult in the room in that in a lot of those situations, just really like bro y'all tripping. There's just a lot of brain y'all trippings, like you know what I mean, Like I would part take in certain stuff, but it was really like even though I was the adult, they really like pump bro. He had this Instagram shit broke down to a science, Like to

a science. You'll think he was just no I'm doing this. No, he knew that, like if I did this with that, then this would happen. Yeah, he got hisself signed off on Instagram, you know what I mean, Like he knew how to get the people to watch videos like we done. Literally sat down and spend like an hour or two just creating a scenario just so that he can make a fucking thirty second video the post that'd go viral. Know, that's how he went from a couple of one hundred

thousand followers to like seventeen million. Mm hmm. It happened fast, you know what I mean, happened Every antique or something that he would do, it will blow him up. He'll get more followers, he'll get more fans, He'll get more engagements, He'll get more money. Everybody can't relate Instagram into money. He's actually transferring them likes, views, engagements into actual hard cash.

What do you think, like, because obviously Pump is still going to be able to make money off of music forever, or at least off off of being a little Pump. But I think that like the potential of Pump and where he is now probably aren't where we all thought it was going to end up, right, where do you think like Pump, shit kind of went left for him. Like I'm not saying he's like down down bad or anything, but you know him and Purp, Like obviously that I

assume Pump was going to be a superstar. You know what happened Pump? Like, honestly, he records every day, every time I call him, records every day. He stopped putting out music, like you know, like he has a fan base, bro Like he hasn't. He has this star power about him. That if anybody between a certain age sees him or those of them a week later, they're gonna be mimicking something that he does, you know what I mean. So when he went to music, this is why I'll be

trying to get around to too. When he Like a lot of people put energy into what they want, you know what I mean. You want to be a rapper, you want to be this, You're gonna put energy into it. But if you take that same energy and put it into anything else, you probably be way more you know, up than what you think you was. So like he was recording the stuff, but he wasn't putting the music out. So it was just like, you know, it's just like working out every day, but not like like just being

in the house. You're not it's not going to anything when and when you're not feeding those fans, you're not feeding fans. They go to rapers and they want music. Bro Like, even it good, bad, whatever it is, you just gotta keep pumping it out. I feel like six ' nine benefited from Pump kind of stopping putting out as much music because he started putting on because he was kind of like an evolution of what Pump was doing on the internet. Yeah, but he just went south because

he went super gangster. But exactly, he just went super solid. He like went super gangster when it was like, were you around six nine at all? Back? Like I did like a show before because I know he was in la a lot. Yeah he was, but like I wasn't really around them, and that even feel me like already at that point, I was just making sure Pump was straight at all times. How's your relationship with Pump now? Oh,

we're great. I can FaceTime right now. Pick up on the first call he caused me asks about my daughter. You know, every time he has a show. You asked me if I want to go, like, bro, we're going to Dubai. I'm like, man, I can't go to my wife will start tripping. I just jump up. He can go to Dubai with a little pump today, you know what I mean. I'm gonna go to Dubai next week. No, you're not. And I got a newborn now, so it's like,

you know, I got daddy duties. I remember there was a certain point in time where you obviously being associated with being the lean guy. You know. I know the first rapper that I saw kind of come out as someone who I knew every time I would see was that was fucking high off his ass was Mazzi. Mazzie did to kick the cup ship, right yeah. And I know some people were like, man, that's corny whatever, but I thought it was dope. But I remember when you posted that, I was like, this is big man, because

you got it. You got a whole different grip on some of these kids and the and the way they look up to you, And I know that that's not an easy thing to stay off of them. I mean, I'm not saying you people don't. People don't relapse, they don't fuck up or because that's a hard like whether you do it or you don't, the biggest part is not to do it in the public, not to glorify it, right, yeah, like not to like like honestly, brot, I could sit right here, take a picture, promoted my album, do whatever

promoted my clothes. It'd do whatever to do. Now if I was to put a bottle of lean a double cup or actually put me pouring Tolean while I'm telling something like three hundred four hundred thousand more views than than percent more views than the regular one. But the thing again. It's like, Bro, like I'm not just trying to like, you know, I got brothers. So when I see my little brother pouring up, you know, spending his money on trying to sib and it's like these kids

don't know what they doing. They can they grabbing anything and just pouring it in a soda. And that's when I kind of stepped back from just like you know, glorifying it or like putting it out there, you know what I mean? I also feel like you look a lot healthier, man. He bro that like people don't really know, like that shit really takes you over. Like I went from like one hundred and eventy pounds to like two point fifty, like you know what I mean you was saying.

He was like, Bro, I had to get off that shit because I was getting fat. Bro, you get so big and it's not even a lean, it's the soda because you're drinking so much soda. You can getting so much soda bout two three four five twenty ounces a day, a two liter to two leaders a day. All that's going in your face, going in your body, and then it sucks up your inside, bro, like to a point where like I was using the restroom and it was blood.

Oh wow, Like like they don't tell you about that part, Like you'll be spitting it to be blood and you'll spit you know, and that's normal. Like that's normal, and it's like, no, bro, this can't be. How was it hard to because you know, obviously with any sort of opiate it's not the easiest thing. Oh yeah, it's hard, but then you just kind of like get through withdraws. Yeah, you get through it. It's like I'm not saying you just go cold turkey. That's when it fucks you up,

but you go from you might go to the hospital. Yeah, you're pouring a pine to day that like you know, now I'm only doing like you'll do like an eight to day. Then from there you'll just do like a cup whenever your stomach start really hurting. And then after that you just kind of like tone it down to where you probably only sipping like once a day. Then you sip in like once a week. Then it's like

you really don't even sip like that. Yeah, I feel like too, like that era of hip hop where the drug use and the lean use was ultra glorified then I mean fetanol was always a thing I feel like now it's really Yeah, that's another thing that slows you down on a lot of that shit, like you around awake a dead yeah, but they don't be putting the

fitting all in the drink. But it's just like the prices of drink so high, and then the price to drink so how you go to pills to try to get the matter pills and then the pills is fake laced, you know what I mean. You don't know what you get nowadays you get so it just kind of just best to just stay away from all that shit. Bro So talk about you know, because for people who don't know you took the clothing brand from being downtown setting up shop in your van, that was always getting how

many times did this van get broken into? Bruh? Then you're broken into at least like two or three times a month, which has got that man, because that's the thing. I stayed in the apartment building, and apartment building didn't have parking for the van. It's only you know, it only had car parking. So I will park next door to my apartment building in the parking lot. And it was an open public parking lot that you could just pay and park your car, and then I would sit

there all day grinding, and then at night. You gotta understand, half of the break ins was just smokers. Just a smoker who probably walked past during the day. See this motherfucker jumping come back at night. It ain't nobody there now. They trying to pry their way up in there. And crazy part. I had to reinforce. I had the back door reinforce. I had, you know, these vands to go seat and it's open, so I had like a cage. I literally built the cage where I kept all the merchandise.

Didn't stop them. They'll break into it just to try to steal some pennies out of the fucking cup holder. You know, a shirt that's damaged just sitting in the front. You know, shirts are like one hundred and twenty dollars, So they breaking in trying to get a sock if they could. They don't care, no, But you were pretty much setting up shop downtown, hustling out the van. Walk me through the progression on how you grew the business too, cause you have you don't have the downtown space anymore.

That was like temporary, right, what you're like a retail space downtown. Oh you still got it. So you have that, and you got Melrose so you got two locations, two point five two point five, three locations. That's crazy. So kind of walk me through how the brand really blew, because I feel like it really really happened. It was always a thing where we would see people wearing it, would see like Adam wearing it or Pump wearing it.

But like now it's like a legitimate like you said, man, like you know, it was important for you to come up here and explain to people that you don't got to sell drugs or play ball, none of that. Like this is my thing, This is my whole testimony. This is what I want everybody to know. You do the same energy that these kids, these grown men, these women, any person is putting into trying to play a sport, which the likely the likeliness of you making it into

impossible impossible. You know, but you spend like you spend so much money, so much time, so much effort trying to be a basketball player, trying to be a football player, trying to play this, play soccer, play whatever. You spend so much time trying to be a rapper, trying to be a singer playing for versus paying for studio time, paying for engineers traveling back and forth to the studio.

If you put that same energy into a business, whether it's you could put that same energy into selling shoe strings. Now I'm going to shoot. Now, I'm going to come every shoe convention selling every person there my shoe strings. You know, I'm making different shoe strings for different days, different holidays. You know, if you put that same energy into making a business, you'll win. Now, how I started was, like I said, it came to the point where Pump

was moving out La. He moved back to Miami. You know Adam, you know he still had no jumper, but he closed down the store and he moved to Burbank where he was just doing podcasts. So it's like, do I want to just you know, jump into the field and stay right with at him. Do I want to go to Miami stay riding with Pump? And It's like, no, I got it. I'm about to stay here in LA

and start from the ground up. Because once people don't understand what you hanging out with these high profile artists, even if you're their best friend, that's buddy, that's still their money, not yours. Facts. Yeah you get free stuff, Yeah you get a piece or something. You hit the perks of it, but it's still theirs, right, Like I can tell you from twenty eighteen to twenty nineteen, I would roll in nothing less than a Mercedes beans. It

wasn't mine, you know what I mean. I had new clothes, shoes, everything, but I didn't pay for them. I would go to the store with somebody and they'll buy like twenty thousand dollars worth of stuff, buy me two or three pair of shoes, buy me a shirt and some pants. Now that's more than most people, but it's still not me with my heart earned cash. Because when I leave them, I don't have shit. So when he decided to leave,

I just decided to stay here. And it basically started with I knew I had this product that people wanted. I had about eighty thousand followers. So I'm like, if I can just sell one or two hoodies a day, which is about two three hundred dollars a day, then that's eating, you know what I mean. So I hired me a driver, you know, because I didn't even have a license. I didn't even have a car. Once pumps left.

I didn't have shit to drive, so you know, I started off finding me a driver, one of my best buddies, Eddie, and we would literally I would literally all day long, Hey, who want a hoodie? On my story? Who wants this? Who want that? I'll go through my requests, find one or two people, get their number, get their address, and put them the next day I'll pull up on them, you know. So I was doing that for about like

two to three months. I did that's so much that I moved out of my downtown apartment and got me and my girls spot in Westchester. And I was doing all that off of just basically Instagram, finding people wearing my stuff, promoting my stuff, like if I wear it, I know, I'll go through my comments, Oh I need that? Click? Okay you in La? Where are you at in La? Okay you here, Simeon. I just won't pull up on you. Wow, I'm gonna bring it. So I did. So I did

that for about two or three months. Then it got to a point where, like I would have so many people to pull up on I wouldn't make it. And besides that, I was pulling up in some sketchy ass places, you know, pulling up and like fucking like you got anywhere? Yeah, I got money. I'm pulling up real nice. You know. Sometimes people will send me the address next door to their house and I'll pull up and I'll see like six people hopping out the hopping out of a different address.

I'm like, hold on, they coming from back there to over here. But you know, in God's good, God's will, you know, it's always been good. But then it just got to a point where I didn't even have enough stuff. We had like a ninety two Nissan CenTra. Oh wow,

that's who was riding around there. And then it got to the point where and this is all right before the Corona started and everything, but right before the corona started, like probably three months four months before the Corona started, it started being like damn, bro, Like I can't even carry enough stuff for people. I will pull up on one person. He'll want a two x to three xent. He'll have his boy who want another large and the small. So it's like, bro, I can't carry all this in

the central. So they're not invested in the van. Once I invested in the van, we would do the deliveries in the van. But and we'll have more merchandise. But then what this one everybody was running when people was running around picking up kids in vans, So it's like I'm running around getting my money in his van, getting pulled over two to three times a day because it's just a white van, you know, they pulling me out,

searching the whole van. So then it's just like, Bro, first of all, I can't make it to all these people. Second of all, I'm getting pulled over left and right. I don't have a license, you know, Like every time I pull over, I got a switch seats with my boy, like they jumping the drovers seat, bro, like they trip it. So then it just got to a point where Corona hit, and then more people wanted stuff. When Corona hit, all the stores was closed, yep, you know. And another thing

people didn't realize. Once all the store closed, I mean a lot of business was closed. Trap went up. It was more people selling more weed, more people selling a booming and edd was booming. So now it's like people

are making more money with nowhere to spend it. But these high end stores because like other stores was closed because that's when it was doing the break ins and all of this because I was right around the same time it was Black Lives Matter, So like a lot of stores closed down that wasn't black because people was

kicking in the doors to George Floyd. Shit happened. So I just found a parking lot right next to my building that the like I didn't even pay for parking at the time because the workers wasn't there because it was Corona. So it got to a point where I'm like, yeah, just meet me right here, downtown. Just meet me right here, downtown. Pull up, pull up right here and right here in this parking lot, pull up on me. And that's when it was like after that, like my worker wasn't with me.

He was kind of sometimes with me. But I'll just be like I got this now. So I'll literally park there all morning, Like I'll get there like eleven ten park still go through my DMS. You want it, a you gotta pull up here and get it. You want it, You got to pull up here and get it. So then now they're pulling up to the van. They're pulling up to the van to grab it all day long. Wow, you know, And that's when it really started booming, you know.

And then it got to a point where my manufacturer were closed, so I could still get the blanks, but I had nobody to print print out. Yeah. So then I'm like, fuck it, I'm about to start doing my own printing. So I would sell a clothes during the day and at night I would be in my apartments screen print in the shirts, screen printing and paint everything. It wasn't no middle man. Everybody was closed business. And you stayed open there, they'll suit they'll tax your ass

for staying open during the pandemic. Yep. Everything. Well, now I'm making my own ship. Next day, I'm going in the parking lot. If somebody coming they wanted something out of half, I'll make it the next night, take a deposit, bring give it to them the next day, you know. And then with that being said, stuff started opening back up. Everything started being cool. You know. I still had all these high end friends and clients. So when they come down, I'm like, man, just pull up to the parking lot.

I got you. So now you got like peewee long way, you got a little pump, you got young thug, you got a little duke. You got all these people pulling up to this parking lot buying stuff and I'm actually recording it the whole time. So now the next person to see it, and when it come to the parking lot, theyself that's crazy. So then from there it's like the parking lot was booming. You got Corona going on. All the stores is closed. I'm making all of the clothes

by myself, by hand. It's no competition because nothing else is open. And everybody had everyone got money. Everybody got money. So you did like an awful lot of edd Yeah, I made awful lot of it because I like, I consider myself high in the street where and what's more about the streets than dd For sure? That was like Billboard for the streets. I can't wait till that documentary comes out. Hey what up man? We gotta interrupt the interview real quick to tell you about our family at

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So make sure you hit that website odd socksofficial dot com save twenty percent off with the promo code bootleg keV. All right, go do that shout out to odd socks. Let's get back to the interview. When they do a documentary about the DD and PPP. Shit is gonna be a movie because a lot of people won't know about it. Was really just a California thing, That's real. CALLI had was like they had people from all over the world

flying and Cali just to run eded. It was like, if you was a scammer, this is like your golden year. This is like the gold Rush for scammers. It was the gold rush. Bro. There's people who I knew were broke as fuck that were riding around in like maybag. I'm like, bro, what the fuck? It was like all of the underdogs I really wasn't making it, were started making it because they have the time and they could

do it. So it went from like me selling a few hoodies a day to me making like five six, seven, eight, nine, ten thousand a day in the parking lot with no overhead, with no overhead, no overhead, ten bands a day, every day, no questions out the van. I started hiring employees to work at the van, like kids that I could trust because it's dangerous out there. But the crazy part is I used to work at the parking lot selling and then since it was nobody there, the lights never cut on.

So after the lights to cut off of me, after to get dark in the parking lot, I would drive to Benny Hibachi and post next today van. Because if you simp lean, you eat Benny Hibachi. You know about awful lot of costs serve of course, so I would do like yo, for people who don't know you go downtown to Bennie Abacchi. That shit is that's just booming. Yeah, you'll be like anybody, anybody who's in town grabbing work or whatever. They're all at Benny Benny Hibachi with offline

costs serve tracks, you know, straight up. So I will park right there and just sell to theay clients and vice versa. You know, people will pull up to buy stuff for me and go to them. You know. Then I think it got around like like you said, people started breaking into the van. The parking people started coming back after Corona. They start telling me I can't park there, and I buy like five six, seven parking spots. Now what's the problem Now. Then they're like, okay, this is

a parking lot. You can't have your clothes just set up in a parking lot with tables and stuff. So then I bought another van. I would keep one of them, will keep the merchandise and storage. The other one I'll have like displays out so when they pull up. So it's like if you just drive past, you wouldn't see nothing but two vans. But if you know this is really where you get the awful lot of coff sirt at. And with that being said, me dealing with all these

high artists. They'll post it on the ground and it'd be like a hitting gym that you can't get to, Like where's this act? Like nobody posts an address, but I see everybody in this parking lot in downtown LA with dub you know what I mean. I never would really post the address. I'll just people want to know you figure it out. You gotta figure it out. So from there I got it just was so much getting

broken into police starting to harass me. I think like I had a few robberies down there where people would like follow my clients and rob on because they know, like I'm talking, I'm big dogs, really put out there spending like two three thousand on coft sir, And it's one of the things where you'll buy it because when you go home, yo, homie wants it, or you can sell it to y'all homie for more, right, you know. So then I got an opportunity to get a store

on Milros. I met a guy he was like, hey, I got a store you know with the corona only got paid twenty five percent of the rent right now, I don't want to be in here. We're good until like for like six months. If you give me six months worth the rent, you know, the rent is like probably like six seven thousand. Just give me like twenty five thirty five hundred a month and I'll let you keep it. But you got to pay it all up front. So I'm like, all right, well, I'm gonna give them

like fifteen bands, fifteen man's. I was supposed to be good for like five six months, you know what I mean. Second month, they start cutting the lights off in the building on Melros. Fucked. They locked the front door, changed the locks on the front door, you know what I mean. But this is still Corona, so you really technically can't

lock people out, you know what I mean. But then it just got to a point where I had so much inventory in there, and they're just like, look after this date, we're gonna lock the doors and have to This was a letter from the sheriffs. We're gonna lock the doors and you're not gonna be able to get anything out. So that was like February. I was literally only there for like a month, but within that month,

I probably made like a million dollars. Wow, just being on Milrose, Jesus, like probably two months to be exact, two months. By the third month, I was like, I gotta get up out of here, you know what I mean. So by the third month, it's like, fuck, I really gotta leave. I'm looking for different locations. I'm searching. You know, they're still putting, trying to cut the lights off they got the landlord is coming down, you know. So by

exactly like the fourth month, I found downtown. I got signed the least for downtown, right next to the parking lot that I used to sell out of. So it was all right there, all worked out. Yeah, So then I got that spot. Then like once I got that spot, a week later, somebody hit me back for a spot on Melrose, another spot on Melros, so then I took that one too. Wow, well you have the old on

some Ship, right, yeah? So yeah, look so on some Ship was the first building I have next door and next door oh wow, okay, okay, okay, so the middle building I got in the third work and you kind of started selling in front of his store, right, That's where I started. That's before like before when I was still on tour with Pump. Yeah. I would get up on Sundays and just post in front of the Atoms

store because everybody know me there. Yeah, and everybody was pulling up because they were like wanting to run into whoever the Yeah, that's what they do. They pull up there to run into whoever's popular something first. Oh dub Yeah, okay, you know me. You want a hoodie? Got these new hoodies? Yeah? You know even though on my ground, you still see to this day, I don't delete nothing. You could see when I was still there selling in front of Atoms. Now you got the spot. Now I got the spot.

Now I got two of the spots. That's it's crazy, man. Now I just think it's dope because I spent just watching the progress and like I was in Miami and shout out to Ghazi. We're at his birthday party in future walks in wearing the hat and I was like, man, look at this guy. Man, that was like one of the biggest things for in the future world, because it's like without future and code and crazy, there'll be no

awful lot of costster. Fact, like I was listening to March Madness when I got put over Wow, like on repeat, like on repeat, bro, I was listening to nothing. That was when the Future was going Monster March Madness Night six nights, like he was going so crazy, Bro, I was on repeat. If it wasn't for future with me, know, off a lot of costs here, what for you? Like, who's been somebody who supported I mean, first of all, you've been doing a bunch of collapse. You talked about

Bennie Abatchi. You just did a collab with them, You just did West Coast Customs. So this was my thing. Once I got the store on Melros, my game plan was, and I just got the store. Just got the store in January this month. That was the first store. Then I got kicked out in like April. Then I got Downtown in and then anybody endo may I got the

other Merro store. So this is all. Don't think like this took like literally within a month, I went from a parking lot to like buying a million dollar crib, owning the Rose Royce, having three three commercial stores, you know, like within like nine to ten months. I did all

of that, you know what I mean. So I just wanted people to think like, you know, at that time, I kind of like I think it really went crazy after I just told myself, like, look, I know I know how to rap, I know how to make music, but it's really a hobby at this time. It's a hobby spending money on recording. I'm spending money on entertaining artists, spending money on I slowed down on making music and put more time into the clothes. Okay, because you were rapping,

you were, Yeah, I still wrap. I got a whole mixtape with hit Boy right now. We just dropped our first single like a lot, like two three weeks ago. You kind of just put more effort into Hey, look this close. I me because look at the end of the day, if you're pulling even if you're making five grand a day in that parking lot of like early right, imagine making ten getting to the point whe're like, damn,

I'm making ten grand. Now, this is fucking crazy. Then you go to that Merrow spot for however long it was a million dollars in a month. This is an astronomical amount of money, crazy amount of money. And then with the price point, your margin's got to be crazy. Yeah. Yeah. And then like I said, like once I got like I told myself, when I go to Merrows, like this is my whole plan the year when out the year before I'm left like the year before the parking lot.

It was like, Okay, I'm gonna try to make a million dollars this year. A million dollars a year is only three thousand a day. Now, just because you made a million that year, that don't mean you're gonna have a million because you get overhead. Yeah. So after the first year of me and I knew I could make a million, the next year, I'm like, I gotta make more than a million so I can put a million up. You want to have a million in the bank. Yeah, I want to have a million in the bank. So

then now I'm like, how do I do that? How do I expand my expand my clothing line? I do collapse. Once I get this storefront, I'm gonna do a collapse every month. I mean, I may exchange my customers with other people customers. You know, if you got a clothing line, we do a collab. You get mine, I get yours. But one thing that they're going to know that this is where you need to go to get it. So I went from doing collapse every month to where like now I'm doing a collab like every two weeks. Who

have you done collabs with so far? I mean you've done a lot so uh Like I said, I did two collabs with Young Thug. I'm about to do a collab with Gunner. I did a collab with my boy Sully. I did a collab with Betty Hibachi. I did a collabor with No Jumper. I did a collab with West Coast Customs. I did a collab with Runts. Who else?

It's like six a lot, It's a lot, a lot Exotic pop. You know, I grind it so hard, and I've been messing with exotic pop. They gave me my own sodas, probably one of their number one sodas everywhere. You can see it in any smoke shop, liquor store, grocery market, anywhere, any place. Detroit, La, Atlanta, Texas, New York. They're everywhere, you know what I mean? Who else? I'm working on some stuff with Travis uh uh, Travis Barker,

are you like interested in? Because I think what makes your ship so fire and what shout out to Ithaca. It's an interesting place over there. But you you you've done like you're able to sell the ship you sell

at the price point. You're selling it not only because it's fly, but also because it's hard to come by, hard to come by and the people that's wearing it right, So my question to you is are you doubling down on the exclusivity of like what you're doing or like, let's say, hypothetically speaking, Zoomis comes to the table and they're like, we want to put your ship in our store.

Is that something you would even entertain at this point? Yes, I would for a minute, I would say like no, no, all what but this is the thing People like, Oh, you're doing a lot of collapse. Oh, it's not as rare as it. What bro these collapse I'm not doing a thousand pieces. All these collabs are limited runs. If you didn't get it at the pop up, you'll probably never see it. You just did something with Bezo, just did some word Vizo. It's so many collabs where it's

like I can't even keep up. But it's like it's so limited, you know what I mean, Like me and Visil, we probably only made about a hundred pieces, you know what I mean, Like we're making like enough to go online, to go here, to go there, no. Yeah, to post these pieces, you gotta pull up and then it creates the demand for it. And if the demand is high enough, I might redo it and put it online. But besides that, bro,

if you don't get it in person. Now, I do have items that I reprint, you know, like certain T shirts, certain T shirt styles, Like I have a flip of a waffle House shirt that's constantly on my website, that's constantly in my store. It's a shirt. But certain hoodies and certain stuff like that, you can't get it, you know what I mean, Like this this hoodie right here. Like if you don't get it when it's online and the papa up within a month, it's gone forever, you

know what I mean? Do you see it? Like does your ship like end up on eBay? And I I was in Websters, I was in fred Siegel, Like like that shit is everywhere and it's it's not on stock X, but I see it on Holy Grail. You know it holds it value. I had to go to this second Street store on Melrose. They were buying my stuff and reselling it. Wow, you know what I mean? And the

thing about it that was buying fake shit. That's how high the demand is I walked in and I've seen fake shit that they was buying and they were selling Like, bro, it's not even Crosser, Like, it's not even my brain. I never made this shirt of my life. Wow. So it holds it value, has a great resell value, has a great reseal value out of town. Out of town people are selling my shirts for three hundred three fifty.

Are you still handling the production knowing everything every piece of shirt that you don't war, I done touched it, I done designed it, I do undid something to it. It's nothing that go past me without these hands touching it.

That's crazy, man. Now I think it's dope because, like you said, man, I just think that like being an entrepreneur in hip hop is sometimes feels so far away and unlike like when we see like when we think of entrepreneurs and hip hop or in the culture, we think of like jay Z, or we think of like nahs, like invested in ring and like but like you, it's to me, like your story is a perfect example of anybody, no matter where you're at in life. It's not hard to get from to that a ninety two CenTra to

a fucking Bentley or whatever. You know what I'm saying, Like, it's not and this the thing you just people aren't directing their energy and they time the right place, broh. Like everybody wants to be a rapper, everybody wants to play sports. R do something else. Just try it. You've been rapping for it three four years. What to just get a few views on YouTube that pays you pennies on the fucking you know, to get some shit on SoundCloud,

to get some shit on iTunes? When, bro, if you just take that same energy and push your own clothing line, push your own merch was it was? It was it hard for you initially to like just figure out the you know, like we're in LA so there's the garment district. Like it's not hard to get a show. It's not.

I used to wake up every morning, not every morning, but every time I wake up early, I'll just go downtown to like it's between fourteenth and Maine and seventeenth and Maine, and then it goes from Maine, Los Angeles, Santa Fe all of them. Bro. You can literally it's people besides me. There's people that go there, all these

girls with them online boutiques. They go there, buy the stuff, selling stuff, all these little Yeah, there's like spots, like you know, I'm from Phoenix, so there's girls who open up botiques in Phoenix and all they do is come to La buy stuff, pennies on the dollar and they just yeah, little dresses, little all that shit. So it's like I used to just wake up and just walk downtown and see what I can put my logo on. Like I'll walk like i'll today. I'll go on the block.

I'll walk in that store, see what I got, walk in the next store and see what I got. Okay, can I get one of those? One of those? I'll go back, make samples. Then I'll go back and buy more. But like that would be a part of my routine. I would wake up, go downtown, restock on whatever blanks I can open up the van, sell them pieces. Then at night I'll make new pieces, post them on my ground so people can see what's coming out tomorrow. Then

the next day it'll be for sale. Bro, It's so crazy, because the reason why I love your story is because look, when I was in high school, the reason I got the name Bootleg keV was because from the ages of sixteen to about nineteen. I was at the SWAT meet every Saturday and Sunday in Phoenix. Remember when the picture t's used to be popping with the heat presses. I was running three heat presses at the same time, doing the scarface picture ts, the Tupac mugshot, teas, all that shit.

Meanwhile getting all the bootleg dunks from fucking China, getting all the bootleg persons from China, all the bootleg NFL jerseys from China, and I had that shit booming. But I literally be out there in my fucking pathfinder with heat presses and a fucking PC. Motherfuckers will pull up like yo, I want dish on a shirt. It's like cool, come back in thirty minutes. I have your shirt ready, you know what I'm saying. And like I just I was, bro the hardest part was figuring out where to get

blank shirts and all that. But won't you figure that shit out? Bro Like, There's really no excuse, man like. And I just think that like that, that kind of like story isn't glorified enough, bro Like. And you know we always look at rappers and the quick come up and everybody want that and the cloud and the fame and all that shit. I'm like, bro, at the end of the day, what matters is like financial stability, Like no matter how you get it, and sometimes you just

gotta go a different route. Like like you, it's probably like whoever watched this? You sitting at home doing whatever you're doing. You feel me. Let's say you're sitting at home just watching this TV on your couch and you drink or so do you put it down? Oh? Why don't we have coasters? Now let's say I'm not saying you're gonna make become rich off of just coasters. It's about your mindset too. It's about making a better coaster. It's about putting more time in the coaster. It's about

promoting these coasts. I mean, you said shoelaces. There's literal companies who kill it in the shoelace gains Like you can go and just like okay, hey, you're like just it. Don't even got to be a big person. You could have friend, pick your friend with the most followers, tell him you want to make that person the shoelace. Have them promote that shoelace today, ten twenty thousand whatever. Now out of that, you're gonna get people buying it, find

somebody else. You're gonna get more people buying it. Find another person. Now you're growing your people, and you're growing the catalog of shoelaces. You can do that with anything, bro, pencils, you coasters. Uh my boy, Exotic Pop just did it with sold us popshitz boom. He went and just started getting stuff that people already used from different places, using these artists to promote it. Once this artist drink it, now all his fans want it, we're gonna have to

go back to get it through you. Now you're giving these artists their own sold us, you know what I mean, Like, come on, so many ways people y'all can get it. Just stop trying to follow everybody else. Sometimes you just need to see how they do it and take that in do it your own way. Hats. I know a homie right now killing it at hats. He's buying regular hats, spray painting on him, putting his design on him, selling

on cracking fools for him. Now even like even like the stitch joints, like you know, they're like, like you said, you just gotta find your laying. I mean, just keep going at it, you know, go from just buying go first, you just buying a hat, putting a little something on it. Now, get your packaging together, now, get your labels together, Now, get your photography up, Now, get your promotion together. Now, once you got a little money, pay people to wear it,

Pay models to wear it. You know what I mean. Pay people to do commercials for it. Bless the right people with your shit, you know what I mean. And it's gonna grow. I promise you it's gonna grow faster than your music career. It's crazy because obviously with guys like Thug who had been big supporters of you, Like when Thug pulls up, do you just bless him? What?

Thug gets everything when it first comes out, whether he like it or not, Boom, as soon as I make it, he damn there gets the samples, some samples he get if he wear it. I will not make it just because it's just for him. That's fine. He would like I had a lot of people wear it, but a lot of people aren't as influential as him. I can promise you that guy first hand has helped me make majority of the money I make today. Because it's not like Okay, Thug put it on. I'm selling a lot

of more hoodies to all of these people. Know. Once Thug put it on, the people that already know is buying it faster. If I only got ten people, that's my boy a, man, I need that one. Now they're buying it faster. And now that they're buying it faster, people are seeing them in it. And when he put it on, it just turns. It turns from just being a T shirt that I wear to support the homie to drip. So now people really trying to like top him.

And it's not even just him, because it's like, if you not this thug, don't be posting pictures of my shit. He don't have to. He really doesn't have to because the people around him that are so big that see him wearing it. I'll get a text from whoever like, oh, you must have seen Thug in it. That's why you're hitting me up, you know what I mean? Once he started wearing it, all of these people that already knew

me wanted it more and faster and quicker. Makes sense. Man, have you had any bigger retail people reach out or you know, you think of like a clothing line like cookies, right, shout out to Berner Cookies as fucking one of the first people to talk to me about doing the club but never went together. But a whole lot of that's an awful lot of cookies would be creating cookies. I've

been waiting on it. But you know, obviously he figured out a way to scale it to where it's I mean, obviously their surets are thirty five dollars, not one hundred and twenty dollars. But you know, he's really mastered. We just had him on the podcast last week. He said, the cookies is the clothing line sixty million a year, which is crazy. Have you had interest in like people coming in trying to maybe either like a big retailer or someone trying to come in and like partner with

you to take it to another level? Well no, not like like like I said, I'm in fred Siegel's. That's a big deal, big deal, yeah, fred Siegeles. I'm in Webster's in Miami, and they have like two or three other stories. They carry my stuff. But then again, like I don't give them too much, you know, like I still like I'm kind of old going sorry. I like to control my own stuff. I have a few Buddies

that got a clothing line called Tulin. That's they don't do retail, they don't do wholesale, they don't do nothing. Everything that they do goes through them, and they're warehousing their things. So like I kind of like that, you know what I mean. I like being a majority shareholder, the only person with the most you know what I mean. So like people really feel that because I feel like since I haven't spreaded my wings all the way out that it just makes people want to come in more

because it's like he could really go there. I can go to Tilly's right now, get a deal with my shit is in autil you wait, wait it out, and build your leverage up more. I don't need to. I'm saying, like little two three years from now, you get that that mother offer where you're like, Okay, I'm good for life. Now let's go. Come on, man, let's go. I'm waiting

for the right one. But so you and you and hit Boy putting out a project together, like for people who don't know you're you're you're from the same area as Nipsey, right, yes, sir, so you and Nipsy, Like I know when he passed that that hurt you a lot, but like, how would your guys' relationship? You said you tattooed him in the past. Nip was one of the first people with a platform that believed in me. Whatever I did, now I told you I didn't like I would do music. He fuck with my music. I made

clothes before off a lot of costshirt. He fucked with my clothes. I did other things. I did tattoos. He fucked with my tattoos. He just always said, whatever you got, bro, you got it, and you need to run with it, like you know what I mean. He was the first person to start inviting me to the studio, you know, like, hey, come over here. I want you to be a part of this. You know we're doing it, we're filming this. I want you to come here. A double law I need you here for this, A double aw needs you

here for that. So, like you know, for somebody smaller, when you have somebody with such a platform believe in you, it kind of just gives you that extra like energy to keep going, motivation. It's hard to keep going. He low key motivated me to keep going until I find my right little itch and twitch. You know what I mean? Anything I ever did. He supported it the fullest. What did you tattoo on that? I did the s on his face, I did all my amb on his back.

I did when he finally got off probation, I did finally free on his hands, and that was probably that was pretty I did like three tattoos on that. What did you do on Pump on Pump? I didn't get on pump so many tattoos. It was a point where we're overseas doing tour bro every night we were tap esketded, you know what I mean, and different languages on our arms and on other people. So we're in Switzerland, we'll get it scattered in Switzerland. If we're in fucking uh,

what is the Portugal, we'll get in Spain? You know what I mean? Like we're just going crazy, you know what I mean. I would take I would have my tat gun. I would have my clothes everywhere I went. Yeah, the eskettered thing was it was I know a girl who does radio who got a tattooed on her wrist. She got scared her hair. I was like, yeah, I was tapping out on everybody in sight, Like, if you wanted to get it, I would give it to you. Free tattoos. Free tattoos, that's crazy, it's legendary. At this

legendary would you ever open like a tattoo? Shot for sure? Already in the work. So it's just right now. So this is my biggest thing. I'm doing clothes. Clothes is so popping right now. I'm about to do a colloid with backpack boys. I'm about to do a cloud with Alien Labs. I'm doing a colloub with all of these alien labs just to laptops, right, no alien laps. That's the that's connected connected to Alien. It's a week company.

I'm thinking of Alien. Where Alien. So the thing is, it's like, okay, let's say all these people are coming to me for to do collapse. I mean they like what I got, they like my material, they like everything. So I started an agency. So now after you come and you do a collab with me, let me let me design your merch, let me do let me run your merch. Let me take this burden off your shoulders. Let me do your distribution, let me do your designs, let me let me do your mock ups. Let me

do everything for you. And since you know I know what they like, you can tell I know what they like. It's enough for this ship to go around. So go from doing a collab with somebody to taking over their merch to where it gets a point where I'm doing it. I'm making money in the background. I was just saying, what you build that agency up to be really like consistent, and you have that. I mean, with all the relationships you have, there's no reason why, yo, thug, let me

head of your merch, yo, pump, let me do the merch. Yeah, you feel what I'm saying. I just know, you know, they like well you see you've seen me go from zero to heroo. Yeah, but you know, I know the placements. You know, I know, I know what they like. So I'm just using that to my advantage right now. That's big man, that's I mean, shit, dude, I just think,

like your story so inspiring. So I think like for anybody who's you know, like we talked about you down and out or you just don't know, like you know, at the end of the day, man, not everything and and and luckily for you, like what you're doing is it is cool, it's hip, it's in. But like just the idea of building a business doesn't always have to be glamorous. It's not easy. But if you put one thousand percent into anything like your chances are that it's

gonna work out. It's a big it's a bigger chance of it working out, and you would make it some type of money. Then then a lot of these other things. If you're one to put in one foot out like it, it's like, it's not gonna work. You gotta be ten toes down. I just think, how hard is it to pay six dollars for a shirt sell it for even thirty dollars. It's not that hard. Now you do that twenty times, you do that one hundred times, you got one hundred and fifty times. It's all residual income. Bro,

you know what I'm saying. You can still do whatever you want to do, but you gonna see that putting more time and effort than of this. I suggest everybody to have some type of merch, Oh for sure. I suggest everybody. Any person that has any type of platform, I suggest that they have any type of merch. Whether it's a T shirt, whether it's a beanie, whether it's a hoodie that you drop every other month, every six months, it's free money. People I feel like you should do

a collab with the full Sand guys on YouTube. Yeah, that's an awful lot of Full Sand would be crazy. That's why I just I just ran across them guys too. They just got a bro. They do millions After this year, though, Like I'm telling you, after this, I'm probably done with like doing collouds with rappers. Yeah yeah, because I mean you've done the big ones. Yeah. It's like I'm like, like I might move on the pop, you know, I'm looking at licenses and ship like I want to do

an awful lot of spinach. I want to do some shit with popa you know what I mean. Like it's bigger things out there than the rappers, you know what I mean. Like I just tested the waters working with like food companies and I mean ship the West Coast Customs thing was kind of you know, that's a company, you know what I mean, that's a that's a car shop, you know what I mean. So like I'm just trying

different things, you know, but still keeping it going. You know, it ain't gotta all just be wrapped around rap, you know what I mean. I want to do some shit about video games. That's an awful lot of Madden, you know what I mean, Like stuff like that. We just use some of the everywhere doing some stuff with my boy, cool car, he gotta he got a shoe company, you know what I mean, a collad with a shoe company. Real quick plug the album with hit Boy, Oh awful

lot of hits. Me and hit Boy. It's an album we made about a year ago. Every beat is slamming, all of this ship is going crazy. We just dropped the first single off of his We're about to drop another one Intense, and it's really just songs just about my life and like me going from like being like a hustler to like being like a businessman, you know what I mean. In these La streets. Hey man, congrats Bro, you're you're killing it. Bro. The closer fire you got

to sew. I mean, look, man tapping. I love the fact you got the van. Show everyone the chain man. You can't never forget where you came from. And you still got the van. Oh wait, they tricked the van out of The van is on twenty folds. The van is painted, the vans wrapped, the van, it's on air bags. That motherfucker sit down to the ground like a little kid throwing the temper tatrum. You never gonna get rid of that van. Never. That van to me is like the Statue of Liberty in New York, Like it's an

La staple. I didn't have that van in every I didn't have that vent during the pandemic. I didn't have that van in the riots. I didn't have that vent in the protests. I didn't have that van. When did you pull up to the protests and with with with gear ready to go putting out with gear? I just put up to the protest with the van, and I'm like letting protesters sit on top of my band while I'm driving and we're honking, you know, for freedom, for for equality, for all that. You know what I mean?

That man is like an avid part of the community, you know what I mean. Just all of the people that would come down when I was in that parking line and take pictures to it. I'll never get rid of it. Did you document a lot of this stuff? Everything is documented? So like in the parking lot trapping, you got, bro. I can go through the archives right now, you can. I can go for days. And besides that,

I don't delete posts. Yeah you gotta you gotta put a little little docu series out once, you know, once it makes sense. Man, Yeah, I'm looking for it, you know, I just got to find the right person with my story. I just want to inspire people, bro, I just want people to like like for a lot of times. Because you think you either got to sell dope. You know what I mean, you got like these are most people options as a kid, because I went through it. First

option is go to college. That only works if you have some money, are you super smart? Or you could sit there because it's hard as fuck to go to college. Go to college, get a four year degree, and end up a broke ass adult. Yeah you got college loans, and then's working at some bullshit job. First one is college, the second one is trapping. Tried that got my ass booked. I spent three years in jail. On Christmas, I didn't see Christmas for three years trying to trap. Yeah you

know what I mean. After trapping, then in la you know, breaking in and stealing, pimping, it's sports. Then it's wrap. You don't have to do none of those, bro, Start a business, grind, put work into it, you know what I mean. Get a fucking vending machine, dude, anything bro Like, it's all types of stuff besides those, but that's like,

those are the ones that everybody. I'm saying, my son's about to turn sixteen, and all I'm getting in for I'm going to spend like five hundred dollars on candy bars and chips and shit for him to take the school and sell. That's where I started. Literally, that's what

he's getting for his birthday. That's where I started. I used to be the kid that they used to pick up and they used to drop us off in front of banks and in front of like different stores with the box of candy and excuse me, sir, do you want to buy some candy dollar candies were selling it for like five yep, you know what I mean. At you know, in Birdbank, they don't got like a lot of like you know, these healthy ass motherfuckers that fucking they took that out of school a long time. Man.

The machines are trash. There ain't no suing. I'm like, gro I mean, look, I'm gonna give him a little hey look instead of me get because he wanted money, and I was like, why don't I just give you? I'm gonna give you the option to turn five hundred and do a thousand. But you let's see what you're made of. You know what I'm saying. If you like your pops for my brother this year, like I buy him stuff, all types of stuff. He loses Jeerry, he read cars. So for this year, I went and bought

him some merch. Boom, bought him some merch. You sell this like myself so much. You're my little brother. Think your mind. Yep, they don't think this. Oh your brother made this. This is awful lot of costs there yep. Okay, bruning out of that, yep, yep. Go hustle this ship. Listen, man, I appreciate you coming through. Man, that's soo dumb, my guy, awful lot of bootlegs. Stop playing with his Let's go, let's go.