WEBVTT

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Real quick. How you know,
fellow Laker fan, I'm not happy with

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you. So the recording of this
episode. They just announced a couple of

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hours ago. JJ Reddick is the
new head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.

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I saw your story. By the
way, I'm with you, but

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go ahead. I feel like we're
doing a sound check, by the way,

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so you could talk about say it
on the mic. Lebron. I

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just don't think Lebron. They got
to control Lebron somehow because he's done.

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I mean to me like this,
the league is too fast, is too

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young, and he's, don't get
me wrong, one of the best ever

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to play, and he's still playing
phenomenals just his style. No longer can

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win. They can't. They can't
win with Lebron being staggering it, holding

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the ball up, trying to be
They just can't do it. And JJ's

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could be a good I was just
about to I'm not saying he doesn't know

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the game, but he's gonna conform
to Lebron. Yeah, they're gonna Benny

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Kobe. Kobe deserved everything he got
the end of his career. He was

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a Laker for life. Lebron,
he doesn't deserve the Kobe ending. If

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you ask me, with the Lakers, I feel I feel that as far

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as controlling the whole organization, I
feel that because it's like it's i mean,

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even Rich Paul saying, if we
don't draft my my son, it

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doesn't matter. Lebron may not come
to you. Like yesterday, the stupid

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comments he was saying, and it's
like, broone's gonna draft your son is

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for him. They're not. They're
not drafting Bronnie because they think Brownie deserves

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to be the NBA. I mean, he could play, but like,

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come on, Bro, do you
think Bronni goes at fifty five he's gonna

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get drafted. They're gonna draft him, and they're gonna try to use it

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as a pond move to try to
get Lebron to go there. Whoever it

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is, Oh, that'd be interesting
that That's all. That's the only reason

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why I think Brownie's come on,
bro, average four points game, yeah,

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like, I mean he's I'm not
saying he can't, but he's six

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one sixty two shooting guard. He's
not a point guard. He's not look

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man, not saying he can't be
a good player for the NBA game I'm

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not saying, but like and then
sometimes you can't. You can't believe what

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you see on the internet. All
the story has been developing for six seven,

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eight years. But what I'm trying
to say with that, you can't

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believe everything you see on the internet
because they're only posting all like the highlights

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of like a few minutes of the
he did that shooting thing. How slow

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he's running the side shooting the ball
like it was very slow. I think

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he just needs more time in college. There was a kid at Frizle State

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where they're trying to get recently made
ninety nine threes in a row. Geez,

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ninety nine, Like he shoots phenomenal, Like, but you made fourteen

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threes and you're really like, oh
my god, le Broni's a great I

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mean, I'm a guy shoot the
ball like really well at a high level.

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The JJ Reddick thing, I'm just
what it is, what it is.

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I mean, we're gonna it's gonna
be a minute for us Laker fans.

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I'm more pissed that they didn't give
early the money. Oh yes,

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short at him. Oh yeah,
Like if you really want the guy,

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I mean, give him, you
know, that would have been interesting.

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Given an offer, he can't say
no to sixty million for six or seven

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years, which may sound amazing,
but Yukon's gonna give him pretty much the

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same deal. Yeah all right,
man, Well we haven't even introduced who

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our guest is. I'm ready to
get this podcast started. Alight, let's

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do it. This could give me
fire podcast. What up? I'm Gizzo.

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That is John Magic and we are
back our guests on today's episode.

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My first memories maybe this was about
just a little under twenty years ago.

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My first memories of our guests was
him introducing us to this up and coming

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artist by the name of Fast Sean. Then we built a good relationship with

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him throughout the years. We got
to see him be a part of some

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major major events here in Fresno that
put Fresno on the map, one being

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the biggest festival to be held here
in the five to five nine Grizzly Fest.

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Yeah. Since then, he's disappeared
from the face of the earth,

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and we're gonna find out why.
Today's guest and excuse me if ive his

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government add in heck and me in
Kemian. It's odd and in Armenian,

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but odd in you know. Okay, Well, the reason why I've never

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said that name before is because we
know him as hectic. Yeah what U

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bro? What's up? John?
How you been man? Yeah, we're

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good. We're We're happy to finally
have you seen youtune? A long time?

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It's been a while. It's been
like COVID separated the whole world.

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And yeah, now we're slowly trying
to get back. Yeah, you know,

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slowly is the keyword. You know, we could start from the beginning.

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I think you're originally from here,
right from when it raised. Okay,

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born and raised in Frezo. Where'd
you grow up? At? North

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west part of town with the elementary
school called Nelson Elementary, then went to

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Kasar and then from there clod Swest
born Yeah, Clobal West Classic two thousand.

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I'm I'm not ashamed to say same. Same my age. You know,

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I've always since I've known you,
you've been music hip hop guy.

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Since i've met you work. Uh
what was the influence during the youth?

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Six? My brother primarily I have
an older brother, he's about five years

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older. Were business partners for many
years now. Basically growing up, I

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was always little var ten. That
was my name, like he played basketball,

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and I played basketball, and I'd
gone to the park, the you

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know the neighborhood, you know,
school hoops, and I'd always play like

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I was really good at basketball at
early age. I was little him.

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Any music he liked, I liked, right, So I mean, I'm

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listening to like, I don't know, let me think some like pro Jam's

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first album, right, Ao Pepper's
mother's malk album, like whatever was coming

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out during those late eighties early nineties
kind of fused because he was he was

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older than I was. And then
hip hop wise, obviously the pop culture

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stuff that we all came across,
you know, your Dre's, your Snoops

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and all that stuff that was kind
of like every kid knew who that was,

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your mc hammers or whatever it was. But for me, it was

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like whatever he liked, I really
liked. And and I remember he had

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a buddy of his that had like
a too short tape and then so I

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had gotten it like too short,
and through that I got into E forty

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and then through that somehow I came
across NAS, and like NAS was one

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of my favorites, like you go
into like the because Tupac obviously was one

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of our favorites. Like, but
I'm saying stuff that, like really I

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would listen to on my own,
So I mean I listened to all kinds

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of stuff, and like Mike Mike. I had a cousin who was my

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aunt was getting divorced, was staying
with me. She was a big Dave

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Matthews fan. I got into Dave
Matthews because she would listen to Dave Matthews.

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I was like twelve, eleven years
old or whatever, so you know,

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fish grateful Dead, getting into the
hippie stuff, all that jam band

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stuff, you know, the led
Zeppelins, the Pink Pink Floyds of the

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World, the Doors. So I
was just super eclectic in the music.

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But hip hop like Nas E forty
I would say, were like two really

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big artists. I liked. That
was like more my identity, Like that

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wasn't like super pop culture. And
I had a buddy on my basketball team,

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my boy E. He was a
big jay Z fan. This was

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so I didn't get into Ill Maadic
Ill Mad. I was like it was

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written was the album that I can
cross nots because I was twelve or eleven

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with Ilmatic and I would have bump
nods and he bumped J because reasonable doubt

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had just came out, so like
we're the dudes on the hoop team that

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he was a J fan, and
the rest of the kids had no clue.

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I mean it was like, you
know, they were really into the

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BA area West Coast stuff for the
LA West Coast stuff at that time.

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So that's how I got into it, man. And then doing my buddy

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on my basketball team who was started
getting turntables, That's how I found turntables.

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Yeah, usually that's like the story
is always like who you're around,

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and yeah, kind of get influenced
by it. Yeah. He was an

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older buddy of mine. He was
a couple of years older than I was,

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or a year older. He was
actually DJ twelve ten. He was

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the one that actually me and him
did the radio show at Kfasara Frezo.

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He hooped. His older brother and
my brother were friends growing up, so

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like we already had like a connection. And he bought some Newmark twelve hundred

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Newmark tables not twelve hundreds, and
one day after practice he's like, I

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got these turntables, you want to
come over? And I went and I

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checked them out, and I was
just like, this is dope. And

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that was at the same time.
It was ninety eight. Were you going

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to say that the time was so
close West? This was ninety eight,

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I believe. And Mixed Master Mike
has something on. What was the MTV

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show that after school was like a
three o'clock was it Carson Daily TRL?

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Yeah, yeah, CRL And I
think Beastie Boys had a new song come

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out at that time, and Mixed
Master Mike was on. I had never

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seen he was like scratching. It
was all at the same time, like

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all intertwined together, and I was
like, Oh, that's really dope.

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And then we started, you know, going and I used to go with

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him to Jason House of Records to
get vinyl because there was a lot of

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places to get vinyl back then.
But wait, when you were when you

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were getting the vinyl, you already
had turned with him. Oh okay,

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I'd go with him. I remember
the first You're going to use his turns?

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Yeah, I remember. I remember, like, no, I would

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just go with him and I may
buy a vinyl two for myself. But

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I was trying to save up to
get tables and at that time, I

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was playing, you know, varsity
basketball, was going to school, and

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I was, you know, I
loved playing playing basketball, but like I

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really loved music a lot. That
was like one of my main things.

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And I remember I got a job
at Taco Bell over on First and Shields.

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It's funny First and Shields because that's
where Fast I ended up picking him

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up for the first time or meeting
him was off of First and Shields.

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He actually got jobbed off of my
suito the first time I met him.

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But I literally go pick him up
almost every day from First and Shields and

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that Taco Bell my cousin who passed
away, was the manager of. And

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my mom was like, Okay,
if you want turntables, you got to

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go work for them. You got
to go get a job. So I

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got a job after like before my
seniors or after my junior season. I

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worked there through the summer before my
senior season. I worked, you know,

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fifteen eighteen hours a week, twenty
two or whatever I can get,

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and I just saved up my money
and I got some twelve hundreds and that

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was it. What was the what
was the goal of you, uh starting

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this DJing thing? Did you want
to do parties? Like I wanted to

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be the illis turntablest Like to me, it was like playing the jams and

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parties I did, so that was
like that was natural for me, even

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like on my teams, like I
was the guy that made the tapes like

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the little CD mixtapes for everybody back
then or for pregames like I was doing

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always doing all that stuff anyways,
So for me, like doing parties and

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stuff like that wasn't like my angle, would I why I wanted to get

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into it. I wanted to be
a turntables like I was into like like

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this Hubert was, you know and
Baboo Cubert. I mean, you want

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to get down to rock Raiders of
the World's Rest in Peace like that was

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my that was my thing. A
track. I remember when I spoke with

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a track, I was like,
man, I used to watch your videos

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and your sets, your dm C. You know. I was about to

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ask about videos. Sorry to interrupt, because you know I'm older than you.

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So we had the VHS tapes.
I still got the tape. I

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got one being converted now to MP
three because I was, yeah, like

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watching the Yeah, that was it, Like used to watch them and the

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scratch Pickles had the best ones.
Yeah, the funny ones, the comedics,

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and they teach you how to do
the scratches, the chops, the

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crabs, the flares, like you
sit there and watch it, you practice

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it. I practiced like seven eight
hours a day like I was. That

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was it. Anybody that wanted to
battle, I was battling. I didn't

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care even if I lost. But
that was just the mentality, like I

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had to be the illest DJ.
So that's all I did. I did

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the parties to make the money.
Because my boy twelve ten did the parties.

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He was more of like mixing party
rocking, so I'd go help them

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with all the parties like high school
graduations and so forth. So but to

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me, I want to do that. And then I got into mixing and

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all that obviously because that's what you
did. And that was That was that

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story. So then was what was
the next move after that? When did

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uh? When did like the fast
stuff started to happen? And was it?

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That was like seven years later?
That was that was way down the

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road. By the way, I
think I assumed you were a producer.

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Did you go route right? So
while I started scratching DJ and I met

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a guy at my high school named
Marcus precise. He went to Colvid West

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and he used to make beats and
he used to make it on Cool Edit

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free loops way back. He had
like the illegal cracked versions back when free

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Loops wasn't really even around that well. And he had a demo version of

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Cool Edit. And he had an
album he had put together with the guy

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a bunch of a bunch of guys
that went to Colvid West. They were

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called the Basement was the name of
the group, and they did an album

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and I was like, oh,
this is kind of dope. Guys that

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go to school with their year older
than me or two did this rap album

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and it was kind of cool.
So they're like, hey, we need

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a DJ. We come be a
DJ in our group. I was like,

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cool, no problem, show up. They were just, you know,

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do their little sets and I would
scratch some stuff on some songs or

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whatever. And then I remember my
senior year, April, like right before

208
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my my eighteenth birthday. Yeah,
right before it, we did a show

209
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at u c l A and the
headliner was it was KRS Blackstar Common Roots

210
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and one of the guys in our
group went to UCLA, so he got

211
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us on that bill. Dam nice
lineup. Yeah, and we were like

212
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the second one. But I mean
the guys actually had a really good stage

213
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show the basement. We actually did
a lot for Freso hip hop community.

214
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Like people don't realize, but if
you really want to get down to who

215
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started a lot of like the shows, it was because of that group.

216
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Like there was a guy named Reza
in the group. He was old,

217
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he was like almost thirty. He's
the one that like the first show we

218
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ever did. We went to Central
Based Artists in Chinatown for a penny,

219
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rented a venue. I had all
my DJ equipment, my boy DJ pri

220
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DJ twelfth, We took all of
our DJ gear and we did shows.

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We did this show. We did
our second shows with this guy named Encore.

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Because when I had the show at
Kfasar at that time, you know,

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we were playing all the underground records. We had the Friday night Freestyles,

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what it was called nine to twelve
every Friday, and that show started

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taking off and we said, let
me get this book. This guy named

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Encore, he was signed the ABB
Records back then from I think the Sans

227
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area or something, and pay him
like five hundred bucks and we did this

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slow show and like two fifty people
showed up. I actually met Sam,

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Bobby, FTK guys there, like
a lot of people. We met.

230
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Asia came back to the show and
I actually got a fight with Asia and

231
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sound check. Wait, why what
happened? By the way, Asia is

232
00:14:22.080 --> 00:14:26.600
the man. He respect the Asia. He played a huge He played a

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huge role in this this this City's
you know, growth in in hip hop

234
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and really in my business and the
artists that I worked with. Asia was

235
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a it was a huge factor in
helping helping what I was doing. But

236
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it was stupid stuff. It was
like when you're djaying and the artist is

237
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gonna come out, you don't play
their record. We're doing sound check,

238
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we're not even we're not even in
Yeah, the show hasn't And I'm like,

239
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okay. It's like he's teaching me
the rules because I'm the new guy

240
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and here's the OG. And if
you know me, I don't give up

241
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what anybody tells. I do what
I want when I want, how I

242
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want. Like, there's there's no
rules to me. I just do it.

243
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But I respect it to the fact
that I'm not going to play a

244
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guy's song before he's gonna come out. I'm not an idiot, So it

245
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was a little stupid stuff like that. But anyways, we did that show,

246
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and through that time period working with
that group, I got into producing.

247
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I just would go to the house
watch him record artists produce. He

248
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showed me how to use fruity loops
or whatever, and I just got into

249
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producing from that, which I liked
more than the actual DJing aspect, right,

250
00:15:28.919 --> 00:15:33.440
the battle aspect, because at that
point, like it was like two

251
00:15:33.519 --> 00:15:37.840
years in the DJing and and I
loved it. But no disrespect the Filipinos,

252
00:15:37.919 --> 00:15:41.080
John, you're Filipinos. They are
the best when it comes to scratching

253
00:15:41.440 --> 00:15:45.480
turntable list. I've met so many
amazing Filipino turntableists. I don't know what

254
00:15:45.519 --> 00:15:48.799
it is in the in the in
the lupia or whatever whatever it's in your

255
00:15:48.799 --> 00:15:54.080
meals, but you guys are just
one of my best friends f plus was

256
00:15:54.720 --> 00:15:56.759
Filipino. So he we we'd go
to battles and he'd introduce me a lot

257
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of people and it was just like, man, these dudes are so nice

258
00:16:00.360 --> 00:16:03.159
at cutting, right. So I
was like, all right, respect,

259
00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:07.440
I'm getting down, but you know, I'll see you guys one day down

260
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the road, Like you know,
what I mean, like matching and that's

261
00:16:10.759 --> 00:16:15.240
the turntablism and stuff wasn't was never
my strength. But as a Filipino,

262
00:16:15.480 --> 00:16:18.399
yeah, well you know that's who
I looked up to as well when I

263
00:16:18.440 --> 00:16:22.360
started DJing. Yeah, it was
all these Filipino d that's all actually who

264
00:16:22.360 --> 00:16:25.799
I knew. At one point when
I was growing up and you know,

265
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out of high school going into freshman
in college, I thought DJ's were only

266
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Filipino. I mean Daily City bro, Like you'd go up to the Daily

267
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City in the late nineties where the
pickles from it, like it was just

268
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that was it, bro, Like
you had and you had to know how

269
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to get down and but yeah,
I was good times man. Then I

270
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got into producing from that, and
I just liked being having a music background

271
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that I did listen to so much
music for my brother and my cousins growing

272
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up. I was just really into
like sampling and digging and doing all that

273
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stuff. So then I put I
put myself into that world of like really

274
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understanding the science of that. So
producing like the basement guys. I had

275
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a bunch of different groups and I
started producing for a lot of people in

276
00:17:03.839 --> 00:17:07.960
Fresno at that time, Like there
were underground rappers coming up. I was

277
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putting on my own shows. Like
back then it was as as grassroots as

278
00:17:11.599 --> 00:17:15.119
you can get, you know,
like we couldn't do shows in Fresno hip

279
00:17:15.160 --> 00:17:19.759
hop shows. Nobody would allow us
to do shows. We were just getting

280
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out of the nineties. You know, the Fresne of the nineties was wild.

281
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It was just the murder capital of
America was what ninety two ninety three

282
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like it was, you know Mac
tann or somebody would be performing downtown got

283
00:17:33.599 --> 00:17:37.079
shot up, like you know whatever. I remember going to a game.

284
00:17:37.119 --> 00:17:40.920
Actually, Kid Capri was playing a
show at the Eagles Hall and I was

285
00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:42.279
a fan of Kay Capri at the
time because I was getting into you know,

286
00:17:42.559 --> 00:17:48.119
djaying world and he was in town
for something and some guy got stabbed

287
00:17:48.440 --> 00:17:52.559
in or with like a glass thing
got stabbed that had shut that show down.

288
00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:59.039
So it's like you wanted to do
advance, but like PD made it

289
00:17:59.119 --> 00:18:02.559
really hard, respectfully, I mean
there was issues that are happening, and

290
00:18:02.599 --> 00:18:04.920
so it's like what do you do? So we really went that like punk

291
00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:11.359
indie underground route to do events.
So I you know, at that time,

292
00:18:11.400 --> 00:18:14.559
I was in college. I did
Urban Combat, which was with the

293
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Climax B Boy Crew. One of
my boys DJ A Wax, and my

294
00:18:18.359 --> 00:18:22.160
and my turntable crew was a B
boy as well. They were like the

295
00:18:22.160 --> 00:18:26.440
most respected B boys probably they're in
the valley for sure, but they were

296
00:18:26.480 --> 00:18:30.039
like they were they were naturally known. They had to think called urban Combat

297
00:18:30.079 --> 00:18:33.240
they had done like two years prior, but they stopped. It was like

298
00:18:33.279 --> 00:18:36.720
the ill was B boy battle,
like hip hop kind of an event,

299
00:18:36.759 --> 00:18:38.119
but it was more B boy bassed. So I called the guy. I

300
00:18:38.160 --> 00:18:41.599
was like, hey, can I
can I bring back urban Combat? Can

301
00:18:41.640 --> 00:18:44.000
I do this? I'm gonna do
at Frizzle State and and then I took

302
00:18:44.079 --> 00:18:45.960
the B boy element, brought the
MC element, brought the DJ element,

303
00:18:48.319 --> 00:18:51.480
and I did that. And that's
when then the second time I met Sam

304
00:18:51.480 --> 00:18:53.920
from FTK came to that event.
So they're like, oh, we were

305
00:18:53.960 --> 00:18:56.359
these guys in Vicelia, we do
our hip hop. So then I started

306
00:18:56.400 --> 00:19:00.279
partnering with them, helping them with
their events, street rocks and stuff that

307
00:19:00.279 --> 00:19:04.519
they were doing. So I just
really dove into like doing events right and

308
00:19:04.559 --> 00:19:08.200
like because I had to do them
in order for like my group to be

309
00:19:08.279 --> 00:19:11.400
seen. There was no promoters.
We never got a call from a promoter,

310
00:19:11.519 --> 00:19:14.400
make your own events. Hey,
we got to show, come play.

311
00:19:14.440 --> 00:19:17.519
It's like we had to throw our
own events or else nobody knows you

312
00:19:17.559 --> 00:19:21.359
exist and we're getting people coming to
these shows. I mean it was it

313
00:19:21.400 --> 00:19:22.799
was awesome. So it was like, it's kind of like an entrepreneur kind

314
00:19:22.799 --> 00:19:26.200
of mindset that I've always had in
my life. It's like, you just

315
00:19:26.200 --> 00:19:27.960
got to do it yourself, like
I can't wait for the next man to

316
00:19:29.039 --> 00:19:32.279
make my outcome happen, right,
and put yourself on essentially exactly. So

317
00:19:33.079 --> 00:19:37.319
that's how I got into the whole
putting on events, doing radio, doing

318
00:19:37.400 --> 00:19:40.319
DJ, and doing producing all that
you did. Mention that you were doing

319
00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:45.680
KFSR, that's the Fresno State Radio
station. Did you ever? It was

320
00:19:45.720 --> 00:19:48.000
that something you wanted to do,
like, you know, wanted to do.

321
00:19:48.680 --> 00:19:55.559
I was in high school and DJ
Big Bear he was at that time,

322
00:19:56.160 --> 00:19:57.440
and there was stationed. He was
there at the station there and then

323
00:19:57.440 --> 00:20:02.359
he ended up going down south the
Center Barbara, La Area. His brother

324
00:20:02.519 --> 00:20:07.079
Archie Davis Archie, he's an executive
now in the industry. So he's told

325
00:20:07.079 --> 00:20:10.240
my boy twelve ten. Because he
was a student, I wasn't sooner.

326
00:20:10.359 --> 00:20:11.319
For say, I was in high
school still, and he said, hey,

327
00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:14.720
just give me a mixtape if you
guys want to show. So I

328
00:20:14.720 --> 00:20:17.400
remember me and him going into his
house and we just did a mixtape like

329
00:20:18.359 --> 00:20:21.279
wherever we thought we could put together. Gave the table because I love it.

330
00:20:21.279 --> 00:20:23.119
I'm gonna give you guys Friday nights
nine to twelve. And we thought

331
00:20:23.119 --> 00:20:26.920
that was like prime time spot,
like, oh hell yeah, we got

332
00:20:26.920 --> 00:20:29.960
a Friday night shot, which it
is. But in the radio world,

333
00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:33.720
obviously five o'clock is what you really
want right or in the morning like whatever

334
00:20:33.720 --> 00:20:36.400
it is, but morning and afternoon. Yeah, But for us, like

335
00:20:36.720 --> 00:20:38.960
you know, nine o'clock to find
out free style, I feel like college

336
00:20:40.039 --> 00:20:42.160
radio that is prime time for college. Great week. It's a different vibe

337
00:20:42.839 --> 00:20:48.359
that we're getting calls forty hours.
Yeah, people, MC battles happening on

338
00:20:48.400 --> 00:20:51.400
the show. I had DJ battles, Like I'd get DJ's calling me up

339
00:20:51.440 --> 00:20:52.720
and saying, like you all want
to battle you, I'd bring him on

340
00:20:52.720 --> 00:20:56.119
the show and I'd battle him right
there. That's I'm like, let's go

341
00:20:56.400 --> 00:20:59.200
bring come, bring, bring this
stuff. We're gonna have a battle on

342
00:20:59.279 --> 00:21:02.160
air. I like that. I
mean Asian all every artist would come through.

343
00:21:02.200 --> 00:21:06.799
We'd have like freestyle sessions, you
name it. Mike Ostagata first day

344
00:21:06.839 --> 00:21:08.400
he came to Fresle, I brought
to the show here. Had messaged me

345
00:21:08.440 --> 00:21:12.400
from San Jose. He said,
I got radio experience here. I'm about

346
00:21:12.440 --> 00:21:15.359
to move to Fresno. I said, Yo, just come through Friday,

347
00:21:15.480 --> 00:21:18.920
kick it, come out, come
say all year was this around? I

348
00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:21.279
was. I wondered if I was
living here already. Oh one or two

349
00:21:21.680 --> 00:21:23.519
he moved. I wasn't here,
Yeah I was. I was three.

350
00:21:23.599 --> 00:21:26.240
Yeah, So like he came and
you know, we became boys. And

351
00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:30.240
I mean just just the people I
met during that time period that was around

352
00:21:30.400 --> 00:21:34.680
was just a lot of different people
from different like parts of Fresle, different

353
00:21:34.680 --> 00:21:38.920
parts of the world. Uh yeah, I mean Asia Turban was really big

354
00:21:38.960 --> 00:21:44.359
at that time. From the schoolyard
schoolyard massive. Well was he part of

355
00:21:44.359 --> 00:21:47.119
school yard or was he trendset or
something like that. But anyways, it's

356
00:21:47.119 --> 00:21:49.319
the same click. What was the
next step or did you have some what

357
00:21:49.519 --> 00:21:53.920
was the next step when you started
bringing Like when we sort of met you,

358
00:21:53.680 --> 00:21:56.920
you start coming to the station a
lot. Yeah, and you were

359
00:21:56.960 --> 00:22:03.240
like bringing artists. You were Diego, right, that's right at the Yeah,

360
00:22:04.720 --> 00:22:07.720
it was really forgot about that.
So how it happened was at that

361
00:22:07.839 --> 00:22:11.519
time I was producing some other people
and the group I started with and I

362
00:22:11.640 --> 00:22:18.960
was a guy named Tone from Hairfair. He came up and I forget what

363
00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:22.839
I I think I know, Tom, it was I know, let me,

364
00:22:22.920 --> 00:22:23.480
let me, let me, let
me distract this. I don't know

365
00:22:23.480 --> 00:22:26.559
if it was Cubic who introduced me
to Diego, which I think it was,

366
00:22:27.400 --> 00:22:32.759
because at that time I had done
a song with Aesop from Living Legends,

367
00:22:33.119 --> 00:22:37.240
Me and my boy Stump, we
produced a song called the Awakening.

368
00:22:38.079 --> 00:22:41.119
It was the Living Legends pressing on
twelve inch vinyls like their single that they

369
00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:47.079
put out. And then Cubic started
coming around from Asia's crew in Asia and

370
00:22:47.119 --> 00:22:52.079
I started working on like doing their
mixtapes and then uh Cubic. One day

371
00:22:52.160 --> 00:22:53.960
I took him to He asked me
like, hey, can you draw me

372
00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.759
off of the at the barbershop,
and so I took him to Hairfair and

373
00:22:59.839 --> 00:23:04.200
he introduced me to Diego and then
through that I met Diego. We did

374
00:23:04.200 --> 00:23:08.039
this song called So Sexy for Cubic. It was it was Cubic Diego,

375
00:23:10.759 --> 00:23:12.720
who's the other two on there?
I gotta remember, but it was I

376
00:23:12.720 --> 00:23:18.519
thought it was a dope track,
and we did it at my studio and

377
00:23:18.519 --> 00:23:21.960
through that, Diego was like,
Yo, you got some dope beats.

378
00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:25.079
Let's work. And then he was
working on his project living Proof, his

379
00:23:25.160 --> 00:23:27.200
first album, to just put it
together. He already had the songs done,

380
00:23:27.799 --> 00:23:30.079
and then we did that, and
then he said, you know,

381
00:23:30.319 --> 00:23:33.960
do I want to do another project
called Doggy Dog, which was what Indoo

382
00:23:33.119 --> 00:23:38.519
was on and so forth. So
we started working and then just producing and

383
00:23:38.519 --> 00:23:41.640
putting his stuff together for him.
It was like I ended up started managing

384
00:23:41.720 --> 00:23:47.839
him because nobody was really doing the
pr the business. And then you know,

385
00:23:47.960 --> 00:23:48.839
at that time, I think it
was like called all hip Hop dot

386
00:23:48.880 --> 00:23:52.160
Com. I don't know if you
remember that one went back. So I

387
00:23:52.200 --> 00:23:53.960
got a call from the person who
started that. She's like, because I

388
00:23:53.960 --> 00:23:57.079
had sent out his tapes to everybody, because at that time I had beat

389
00:23:57.079 --> 00:24:02.079
tapes going out for like shootout,
trying to get any anybody had the same

390
00:24:02.160 --> 00:24:06.240
guy that was helping Kanye place beasts
named Success, who's he's in A and

391
00:24:06.319 --> 00:24:11.000
R right now at a long time
at a it's not deaf jam. It's

392
00:24:11.039 --> 00:24:15.240
one of those that's they're all disappearing. Yeah, they're all disappearing. But

393
00:24:15.319 --> 00:24:18.240
he's been around for he and he's
actually done really well for himself. His

394
00:24:18.319 --> 00:24:22.599
name was Success, and I met
him through Sam and Bobby because Sam Bobby

395
00:24:22.640 --> 00:24:30.839
had a guy named Homie from Chicago. What's his name. He's the one

396
00:24:30.839 --> 00:24:33.880
that really helps him with the Kanye
logo stuff. And yeah, you talked

397
00:24:33.880 --> 00:24:37.519
about it at podcast. Oh gosh, you know he was, Yeah,

398
00:24:37.640 --> 00:24:42.680
just just listen anyway to listen to
the episode with Sam talks about him.

399
00:24:42.920 --> 00:24:47.000
And so anyways, he connected me
with Success. He goes, oh,

400
00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:49.480
this guy's placing beats for just Blaze
and Kanye's and this was Whatever's and and

401
00:24:51.039 --> 00:24:52.119
I had, like, you know, forty fifty beats style, I was

402
00:24:52.119 --> 00:24:55.920
making a bunch of beats and I
just connect with him. He liked my

403
00:24:56.000 --> 00:24:59.359
stuff, so I was sending stuff
out and through that I was like,

404
00:24:59.440 --> 00:25:03.079
Okay, well I can just email
my stuff out to like just that's when

405
00:25:03.119 --> 00:25:07.319
you had your you know, black
bet now was it BlackBerry? Even I

406
00:25:07.400 --> 00:25:10.279
had to be black? Black side
kicks were cool, but if you're doing

407
00:25:10.319 --> 00:25:14.920
business, had a black BlackBerry but
yeah, so I started sending stuff out

408
00:25:14.920 --> 00:25:17.599
and then I got calls back like
his dude, Diego's really dope, these

409
00:25:17.640 --> 00:25:19.240
tracks are amazing, blah blah blah
blah. We want to get an interview

410
00:25:19.279 --> 00:25:22.480
with him. And then it was
like West Coast, there's a West Coast

411
00:25:22.480 --> 00:25:23.440
site. Next thing, you know, like all these people, I'm doing

412
00:25:23.480 --> 00:25:29.079
like a bunch of pr form and
we're getting a bunch of hits. And

413
00:25:29.119 --> 00:25:32.000
then next thing you know, I'm
getting calls from record label people like,

414
00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:33.920
hey, we're interesting in this Skuy
Diego Red you know, we you know,

415
00:25:34.240 --> 00:25:37.799
would you come in for an interview
or a meeting. So I'm like

416
00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:41.759
managing him. Now we're doing shows. I'm booking him for shows like and

417
00:25:41.799 --> 00:25:45.519
I'm just kind of like in directly
his manager. This is all about like

418
00:25:45.559 --> 00:25:48.039
accident. Essentially. I didn't say, hey, I want to be your

419
00:25:48.079 --> 00:25:52.400
manager. I wanted to be the
producer and make the beats and work with

420
00:25:52.519 --> 00:25:57.119
artists, and but if nobody's doing
that job again, like doing the shows,

421
00:25:57.920 --> 00:26:00.039
you just got to figure it out, do it yourself. Got to

422
00:26:00.039 --> 00:26:04.279
do it yourself as acting manager.
Did you guys talk about like did you

423
00:26:04.319 --> 00:26:07.039
get you know, we just we
just put the money. Okay, oh

424
00:26:07.079 --> 00:26:10.359
wow, it wasn't. We didn't. We didn't really like get in the

425
00:26:10.359 --> 00:26:14.160
content. There was nothing like official
contractual stuff with Diego. It was just

426
00:26:14.400 --> 00:26:17.119
we're gonna just get it done.
Is he still in the town. He's

427
00:26:17.160 --> 00:26:19.880
in Vegas. Yeah, and he's
got one of the funniest little live things

428
00:26:19.880 --> 00:26:22.880
he does on the internet. Him
and Money Bostle shout out to them.

429
00:26:22.920 --> 00:26:26.920
I love it. So were you
producing his music? Not all like three

430
00:26:26.960 --> 00:26:30.680
four songs on the project? Did
you do? In the know? And

431
00:26:30.680 --> 00:26:34.640
in the note was actually for Sam
with this kid j Jack that he was

432
00:26:34.680 --> 00:26:37.880
working with that was an m C
like a battle MC kid. He came

433
00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:41.400
over and I just started messing around
and we're like, oh, this you

434
00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:42.839
know was Born of Mac? Was
that was that the record? Or Born

435
00:26:44.480 --> 00:26:51.240
Return? I'm not Born Mac?
I basically flipped like sampled it was it

436
00:26:51.279 --> 00:26:52.359
was not replayed it, but it
was like, yeah, it was based

437
00:26:52.359 --> 00:27:00.720
off the original of Back of the
Year. No dang and Dan. My

438
00:27:00.720 --> 00:27:07.319
mind is completely now just yelling anyways
forgive me, but my mind is not

439
00:27:07.400 --> 00:27:10.079
hasn't been on the music World and
a long like you know sometime else.

440
00:27:10.119 --> 00:27:11.279
But so then I did the record
for him, and he was like,

441
00:27:11.279 --> 00:27:14.160
oh, this is great, and
the sam was like, oh this is

442
00:27:14.240 --> 00:27:15.519
this might be a little too too
good for him. Because it started coming

443
00:27:15.519 --> 00:27:18.599
together, I was like, whatever, it's all good. Next day,

444
00:27:18.640 --> 00:27:22.319
Diego came through and and he was
like, you're working on anything. I

445
00:27:22.319 --> 00:27:25.079
said, I did this thing last
night, and he's like, oh,

446
00:27:25.160 --> 00:27:26.400
play that, and then he did
this in a note of that. But

447
00:27:29.480 --> 00:27:33.519
yeah, Diego was amazing. I
think Diego his songwriting and his ability was

448
00:27:33.519 --> 00:27:41.599
was phenomenal. I think he really
to me, he felt like a Kendrick

449
00:27:41.640 --> 00:27:48.160
before Kendrick came out in a sense
it's storytelling, West Coast storytelling and so

450
00:27:48.240 --> 00:27:51.759
forth. He's to me, I
think one of the best writers I've ever

451
00:27:52.519 --> 00:27:56.920
heard, still till this day.
But through him, you know, tone

452
00:27:56.960 --> 00:28:00.279
at at hair fair and brought fashion
onto my place, right, he was

453
00:28:00.279 --> 00:28:03.839
like, Hey, you gotta work
with this kid. So then that's how

454
00:28:03.880 --> 00:28:07.200
that kind of slowly developed, right, and then I built did his mixtapes,

455
00:28:07.279 --> 00:28:10.559
and at that time I did,
Okay, I'm officially gonna manage this

456
00:28:10.640 --> 00:28:12.519
kid. I'm basically in the side
of my company, Like I did everything

457
00:28:12.680 --> 00:28:15.920
for that kid, you know,
Like as far as the beats, the

458
00:28:15.960 --> 00:28:19.319
productions, the recording, the pr
I mean it was I was the record

459
00:28:19.400 --> 00:28:22.799
label, you know, in every
aspect you could think of. I mean,

460
00:28:22.839 --> 00:28:26.039
I've written hooks, I've written you
name it, I'm it's just we're

461
00:28:26.079 --> 00:28:30.160
just we're just on full go mode
right now, like on music. So

462
00:28:30.920 --> 00:28:37.240
I was blessed. You know,
Fashionre's phenomenal, phenomenal person, phenomenal artist.

463
00:28:37.079 --> 00:28:41.559
You know, I think he represented
this city better than anyone really could

464
00:28:41.599 --> 00:28:44.480
have to be honest with you,
I mean he kind of was a mold

465
00:28:44.519 --> 00:28:48.559
of all kinds of different parts of
Fresnough And yeah, I really enjoyed that

466
00:28:48.599 --> 00:28:52.720
time period. How did the nask
connection happen with fash It's a good story.

467
00:28:53.400 --> 00:28:59.079
My cousin had a spot in Atwater
Village. Was that a water village

468
00:28:59.079 --> 00:29:03.119
out there right next to I think
it's that water village called or something like

469
00:29:03.160 --> 00:29:08.559
that. He had a little restaurant
outdoors patio spot was really cool. He

470
00:29:08.680 --> 00:29:12.880
wanted to do like a day party
thing going on because at that time the

471
00:29:12.880 --> 00:29:15.799
big day parties were going on,
the big Sunday party that was happening in

472
00:29:15.839 --> 00:29:21.880
Hollywood all the time. Right No, before Red Cup, this is before

473
00:29:21.920 --> 00:29:26.519
Red cup Alo Black used to host
it. Freddie Gibbs used to be always

474
00:29:26.519 --> 00:29:32.200
their Alchemy's used to go to.
It was like I'm I'm so blanked and

475
00:29:32.240 --> 00:29:34.039
everything right now. But anyway,
so he wanted to do it just a

476
00:29:34.119 --> 00:29:37.720
day party, not a hip hop
based one that was really like your your

477
00:29:37.799 --> 00:29:40.640
hip hop based, like the beat
junkies would run that and and so forth.

478
00:29:41.640 --> 00:29:44.640
So I was like, Okay,
you should do this, this and

479
00:29:44.680 --> 00:29:48.599
that. I kind of was helping
him with the concept and he did it,

480
00:29:48.640 --> 00:29:52.160
and next thing you know, in
that area there was a bunch of

481
00:29:52.240 --> 00:29:56.279
like like hip hop like coalition like
groups, low clicks that are happening and

482
00:29:56.319 --> 00:30:00.640
they were kind of known in the
in the underground m C world, and

483
00:30:00.680 --> 00:30:03.200
they contacted my cousin and he said, hey, do you know these people?

484
00:30:03.519 --> 00:30:07.599
I said, I actually met him
back in when we went to MC

485
00:30:07.680 --> 00:30:12.000
Battle in like two thousand and two
and Cincinnati with Sam. I actually went

486
00:30:11.880 --> 00:30:15.160
with a battle with him and he
was a really dope MC. I'm like,

487
00:30:15.240 --> 00:30:18.240
yeah, I remember that guy from
like twelve years ago, ten years

488
00:30:18.240 --> 00:30:19.440
ago. He came through. He
says, I want to throw a party,

489
00:30:19.480 --> 00:30:22.599
like a day party. So he
did it. While that was happening.

490
00:30:23.319 --> 00:30:27.319
Tungi, who that name sounds for
milk. Yeah, he's the president

491
00:30:27.359 --> 00:30:33.240
of Deaf Jam. So I was
now he is the last five years.

492
00:30:33.279 --> 00:30:36.680
But Tungi used to be an mc
me and Faster. You know, we're

493
00:30:36.680 --> 00:30:40.119
out in La originally trying to like
make a name for him and so forth

494
00:30:40.200 --> 00:30:42.880
networking. He was a rapper himself
and always used to love Fast. He

495
00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:45.640
was like always wanting to collaborate with
him and do work with him and so

496
00:30:45.720 --> 00:30:51.000
forth. So he came to this
event. At that time, we were

497
00:30:51.039 --> 00:30:56.960
trying to do an album. This
was after this was Champagne and Style phone

498
00:30:56.960 --> 00:31:00.319
Cups made came out and then it
was before whatever they called the album was.

499
00:31:00.359 --> 00:31:04.240
It was like this time period and
Fash was like, we're in the

500
00:31:04.279 --> 00:31:07.880
studio and he was kind of in
like a rut. He was like,

501
00:31:07.880 --> 00:31:11.279
what am I going which direction?
And you know, he was doing a

502
00:31:11.279 --> 00:31:14.440
bunch of records and I don't think
mentally he was in the best place in

503
00:31:14.480 --> 00:31:17.400
his life, like you know,
having a kid being in Fresno, He's

504
00:31:17.400 --> 00:31:19.519
in LA and he was making money. But it was just like this weird

505
00:31:19.680 --> 00:31:25.759
dark phase in his career. He
had came back to Fresno. He's like,

506
00:31:25.839 --> 00:31:27.519
I'm just gonna go back to Fresle, like I gotta recharge or whatever.

507
00:31:27.720 --> 00:31:30.519
And so I see Tanji and he's
asked me about Fast, and I

508
00:31:30.519 --> 00:31:33.480
go, I got like twelve records, but we don't know what we're gonna

509
00:31:33.480 --> 00:31:37.640
do an album or what's gonna happen. We're kind of floating in this gray

510
00:31:37.720 --> 00:31:42.039
space. So he said, have
you ever connected with Nas? We're Anthony

511
00:31:42.119 --> 00:31:45.720
his manager, And I was like, Nolway's ever contacted us from them and

512
00:31:45.759 --> 00:31:48.359
so forth. He's like, I
gotta connect you. Let's set up a

513
00:31:48.400 --> 00:31:52.759
meeting like Monday or Tuesday, like
next week whatever, just come to the

514
00:31:52.799 --> 00:31:56.039
interscope off. He was an interscope
at this time. So I called Fast.

515
00:31:56.119 --> 00:31:57.319
I said, I need to come
back up. We got a meeting

516
00:31:57.319 --> 00:32:02.079
on Tuesday. So we went and
tons of meets with Fast or talking.

517
00:32:02.160 --> 00:32:05.880
He's like, bro, he listened
to the records. He's like, man,

518
00:32:05.920 --> 00:32:07.279
you got to connect with like Nas
and aunt like, I have to

519
00:32:07.279 --> 00:32:10.680
connect Right there on the spot,
he emails aunt Ant responds back to me

520
00:32:10.720 --> 00:32:15.799
and him c Seed and he said, I love Fast. He's dope.

521
00:32:15.559 --> 00:32:21.000
Let's meet out in Westwood for coffee. Like in like this Friday or something.

522
00:32:21.839 --> 00:32:23.279
So that Friday comes, we go
meet with him and An it's like,

523
00:32:23.359 --> 00:32:25.119
yeah, we don't want to start
a label. We don't want to

524
00:32:25.160 --> 00:32:28.599
do this. I think you're really
dope. I'll try to connect you with

525
00:32:28.720 --> 00:32:31.400
NAS like it's just a bunch of
whatever. There's like literally nothing being discussed

526
00:32:31.799 --> 00:32:36.680
business wise at that time. And
I'm like, okay, all good,

527
00:32:36.720 --> 00:32:37.640
Just let me know if you guys, you know, if you guys want

528
00:32:37.640 --> 00:32:40.359
to if we can get NAS on
the track, or we can collaborate,

529
00:32:40.440 --> 00:32:43.839
or you guys got some shows.
I'm just trying to build a network.

530
00:32:44.039 --> 00:32:46.480
If they can just collaborate in the
studio, if he needs a writer for

531
00:32:46.559 --> 00:32:51.559
something, who knows. I'm just
whatever. And then I get a call

532
00:32:51.680 --> 00:32:55.920
two months later from Peter Bittenbender from
Massive Appeal Records. He's the him and

533
00:32:57.000 --> 00:33:00.400
NAS were partners and he used to
have a record label that we knew about

534
00:33:00.680 --> 00:33:02.519
for many many years prior to that. Dcon Records was one of them.

535
00:33:04.119 --> 00:33:07.119
And he's like, hey, what's
up. How you been. I'm like,

536
00:33:07.240 --> 00:33:09.160
I'm good. It's doing the thing
house fast. He's good. He's

537
00:33:09.160 --> 00:33:10.400
like, hey, well, I
want to tell you something. I'm like,

538
00:33:10.400 --> 00:33:13.039
well, what's going on, Like, Pete, I'm not signing the

539
00:33:13.119 --> 00:33:15.920
DCON like because we've already had offers
from him. I'm like, no,

540
00:33:15.960 --> 00:33:19.680
we're not signing the DCON records.
That's not it's not the move. And

541
00:33:19.720 --> 00:33:21.960
he goes, well, me and
I was a collap We were meeting and

542
00:33:21.960 --> 00:33:23.960
we're starting massive records. We want
to sign Fash, and I just really

543
00:33:23.960 --> 00:33:29.920
wants to sign Fash. So that's
kind of happened. So no, knock

544
00:33:29.960 --> 00:33:32.799
the pee pizza, good guy.
I just personally, I just think some

545
00:33:32.799 --> 00:33:37.680
people maneuver better business wise than others. But he seems to kind of get

546
00:33:37.680 --> 00:33:43.039
in front of some of the things
at the right time. And so yeah,

547
00:33:43.079 --> 00:33:45.759
that basically called fast. I was
like, hey, these guys want

548
00:33:45.759 --> 00:33:46.880
to sign you. I said,
sent over the contract, let's look at

549
00:33:46.920 --> 00:33:50.720
it, and so forth, and
then went through back and forth about a

550
00:33:50.720 --> 00:33:53.759
month and then got the deal done. So yeah, a good opportunity for

551
00:33:53.839 --> 00:33:58.920
him. Yeah, at that time
that I was out here and especially like

552
00:33:59.000 --> 00:34:02.039
out here in Fresno, I know, uh, Vash was probably on what

553
00:34:02.119 --> 00:34:07.119
I think to this day is probably
the best freshman class cover. Yeah,

554
00:34:07.119 --> 00:34:09.599
that was an amazing class, double
excel. How did that happen, Like,

555
00:34:09.760 --> 00:34:13.480
was that a situation where they reached
out to you? Is there a

556
00:34:13.559 --> 00:34:16.239
lot of politics involved in that situation. That's a good question, cause I'm

557
00:34:16.280 --> 00:34:21.920
assuming you knew like months before it. Actually we knew. We did a

558
00:34:21.920 --> 00:34:24.920
photo shoot. I think in January. I got the call in like October

559
00:34:24.960 --> 00:34:32.280
November. We had just dropped Boy
Meets World Classic, maybe a month prior

560
00:34:32.320 --> 00:34:37.239
to that, Okay, And so
I'm looking up real quick. I'm glad

561
00:34:37.239 --> 00:34:42.719
we got her phone these days.
But so we had a PR company that

562
00:34:42.920 --> 00:34:45.159
the label that put out Boy Meets
World had connected us with. And at

563
00:34:45.159 --> 00:34:51.400
the time, she was she was
a big she was a heavyweight in like

564
00:34:51.440 --> 00:34:54.519
the indie world. But she had
another artist that she represented named j Cole.

565
00:34:54.760 --> 00:35:00.280
Right, So we had met with
her and so forth about just regular

566
00:35:00.280 --> 00:35:04.320
PR stuff for fashion his album and
and you know, getting him on the

567
00:35:04.360 --> 00:35:07.639
road and so for he was touring
with ghost Face at this time. And

568
00:35:09.079 --> 00:35:15.039
I get a call from is a
rap genius? What's what's one of the

569
00:35:15.400 --> 00:35:21.039
They started, Oh, man,
you know what you guys called me at

570
00:35:21.199 --> 00:35:24.320
like he's too late. Let me
see what his name was? He raps

571
00:35:24.360 --> 00:35:27.920
too now? Actually, and he's
and he's like, he was a big

572
00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:32.480
journalist. He was at Double Xcel. Obviously. He calls me and he

573
00:35:32.559 --> 00:35:37.239
goes, hey, want to reach
out to you regarding you know, your

574
00:35:37.280 --> 00:35:39.800
artist fashion. I'm like, okay, great. I gotta say his album's

575
00:35:39.800 --> 00:35:43.280
like one of my favorite albums I've
ever heard. So I'm like, hey,

576
00:35:43.280 --> 00:35:45.559
I appreciate it, thank you so
much, like you know. He's

577
00:35:45.599 --> 00:35:46.920
like, and I'm like, well, what is Double x celgan that's are

578
00:35:46.920 --> 00:35:50.440
they gonna want to review it in
Double So awesome, Like grew up for

579
00:35:50.480 --> 00:35:54.000
that. I think at that time
we already had they had the PR lady

580
00:35:54.239 --> 00:35:58.159
submitted our album into them, so
they already had done the review on their

581
00:35:58.239 --> 00:36:00.679
on their portion of it, and
and so I'm like, okay, great,

582
00:36:00.800 --> 00:36:05.760
and he's like, you have a
PR person though an agency working with

583
00:36:05.880 --> 00:36:08.360
I'm like, yeah, her name
is such and such, and he goes

584
00:36:08.800 --> 00:36:12.679
really and I'm like yeah, he
was like, because we've been trying to

585
00:36:12.760 --> 00:36:15.840
track. The way they got a
hold of me was they called Blues manager

586
00:36:15.880 --> 00:36:19.480
because Blue was on the cover of
the year before and he did the album

587
00:36:19.480 --> 00:36:22.079
with Exile. They called him John
Kim, and John Kim gave him my

588
00:36:22.159 --> 00:36:25.800
info. So He's like, we've
been trying to track how to get a

589
00:36:25.800 --> 00:36:29.760
hold of Fash and I'm like,
yeah, such and such as our PR

590
00:36:29.920 --> 00:36:31.559
person's like, well, she represents
j Cole. She did never say anything

591
00:36:31.599 --> 00:36:37.480
about Fash. That's just how the
game works. But anyways, so I'm

592
00:36:37.480 --> 00:36:39.679
like, all, good man,
we're here now it's whatever. And so,

593
00:36:39.760 --> 00:36:43.039
yeah, they called this and that
was like I called fast. I

594
00:36:43.039 --> 00:36:44.880
was like, hey, they want
to and we knew the cover. I

595
00:36:44.960 --> 00:36:46.280
was like, hey, they want
to put you on the double XL freshman

596
00:36:46.400 --> 00:36:49.679
cover thing. And it was a
big deal, but we had to keep

597
00:36:49.719 --> 00:36:52.960
it quiet. It's almost a gift
in the curse though, I tell I

598
00:36:52.000 --> 00:36:53.679
told him. I was like,
hey man, this is gonna put a

599
00:36:53.719 --> 00:36:58.440
lot of pressure on you. Yeah, you can get a lot of eyes,

600
00:36:58.440 --> 00:37:01.239
but it's a lot of pressure too, So you better be ready to

601
00:37:01.239 --> 00:37:04.599
pick it up. Like you better, you better put that hard head on

602
00:37:04.679 --> 00:37:07.559
and go to work because now it's
gonna be even more eyes on you.

603
00:37:07.639 --> 00:37:09.320
And if you thought you worked hard
to get to this point, because we

604
00:37:09.360 --> 00:37:14.760
had to put like seventy projects out
before Boy means World, you wouldn't realize

605
00:37:14.800 --> 00:37:16.199
that oh six, I started putting
up projects with him, and he was

606
00:37:16.199 --> 00:37:20.239
putting out two to three a year. Yeah, when you say projects,

607
00:37:20.320 --> 00:37:22.880
you mean like a little single.
I was doing like twenty track twenty two

608
00:37:22.920 --> 00:37:28.440
track mixtapes. He was like,
it was like sixty seventy minutes of music

609
00:37:28.480 --> 00:37:32.280
of him rapping two three times a
year. Was this was? What was

610
00:37:32.320 --> 00:37:37.039
that song where you have sampled that
Michael Jackson tried? That was like one

611
00:37:37.039 --> 00:37:40.360
of my favorite tracks. That was
all I got when I died. Right

612
00:37:42.199 --> 00:37:45.559
before he died, Levan's Ray from
Frezon Placks. We played football at Clovis

613
00:37:45.639 --> 00:37:50.679
High and San Diego State. He
was part of a production crew and I

614
00:37:51.079 --> 00:37:53.840
was buddies with them to high school
just through sports. And he had a

615
00:37:53.920 --> 00:37:58.679
radio show, Okavs on Saturdays,
so he'd always stay in touch. He's

616
00:37:58.719 --> 00:38:00.159
like, I got this beef for
She's got a rap on it, and

617
00:38:00.199 --> 00:38:02.519
I'm like, all right, dude, just send it over whatever like and

618
00:38:02.559 --> 00:38:06.519
he sent it fast, like cool, let me just do something to real

619
00:38:06.559 --> 00:38:08.599
quick, and he just did something. But that was that was like in

620
00:38:08.639 --> 00:38:13.199
the middle of that in that period. Okay, but yeah, I mean

621
00:38:13.199 --> 00:38:19.400
that class like j Cole, Nipsey
Hustle was part of that wiz uh Hill

622
00:38:19.599 --> 00:38:22.000
j Rock. Yeah, it was
that was today day. I still feel

623
00:38:22.000 --> 00:38:23.079
like that was like the best freshman
class. It was. It was a

624
00:38:23.199 --> 00:38:28.360
it was a tremendous class. I
mean it was interesting because it was Yeah,

625
00:38:28.599 --> 00:38:30.440
Nipsey rest in peace. He was
there, Kendrick was at that photo

626
00:38:30.440 --> 00:38:32.360
shoot. We were out. Actually, there was a lot of people there

627
00:38:32.400 --> 00:38:39.000
that hanging out backstage at that point. We had when we did that shoot,

628
00:38:39.599 --> 00:38:43.599
Fashion Whiz we had the same booking
agent. They were going on tour

629
00:38:43.639 --> 00:38:49.199
together for Cushion Orange Juice. So
but Fashion Wiz just got along because they

630
00:38:49.280 --> 00:38:53.320
just both like to smoke a lot
of weak so but they got along and

631
00:38:53.320 --> 00:38:58.280
and yeah, so it built.
I mean, just the experience of Fast

632
00:38:58.360 --> 00:39:00.840
going on tour with Wiz when he
was just blowing up, Like people don't

633
00:39:00.880 --> 00:39:06.920
realize how fast things could change.
And then overnight, like it was the

634
00:39:06.960 --> 00:39:12.119
first show and De Soto was the
DJ the first one. Because I was

635
00:39:12.159 --> 00:39:15.639
like fast. The business like at
this point, our business was really busy,

636
00:39:15.719 --> 00:39:17.239
Like there was a lot of bookings
going on, there's international stuff going

637
00:39:17.280 --> 00:39:20.880
on, there's you know, the
next album. We got to work on

638
00:39:20.880 --> 00:39:22.840
this record, Like I had a
lot of work on my plate, so

639
00:39:22.880 --> 00:39:27.000
I was like, I can't DJ
for you, tour manage do all this

640
00:39:27.039 --> 00:39:30.920
stuff, Like, well, I
gotta So I had seen Sodo and he's

641
00:39:30.960 --> 00:39:31.719
like, I'll do it. I'll
go on the road with them, and

642
00:39:34.000 --> 00:39:36.119
so he did the first two or
three days and then I jumped on the

643
00:39:36.159 --> 00:39:38.239
road. That's another story. Nothing
no knock to Soto just fast was like

644
00:39:38.360 --> 00:39:43.719
I need you back on the road. But I remember they did the first

645
00:39:43.760 --> 00:39:45.599
show and I'm like, how things
going, Like it's chaos. I'm like,

646
00:39:45.599 --> 00:39:47.960
what do you mean it's chaos?
He's like, Bro, they're canceling

647
00:39:47.960 --> 00:39:51.800
the venue. We're going across the
street to venue that's got like five hundred

648
00:39:51.840 --> 00:39:55.159
more seats because there's like fifteen hundred
kids out, two thousand kids out for

649
00:39:55.199 --> 00:39:59.719
this like thousand person venue. Wow, and they're gonna go to like literally

650
00:39:59.760 --> 00:40:02.079
there were taking the sound equipment across
the stage, like across the street.

651
00:40:02.800 --> 00:40:06.239
I'm like really, I'm like okay. And I knew Whiz was getting big,

652
00:40:06.280 --> 00:40:07.639
but I didn't know it was like
to that level. I'm like,

653
00:40:07.679 --> 00:40:10.639
all right, show was like fascist, Like this is crazy, bro.

654
00:40:10.760 --> 00:40:15.800
These kids are like the Whiz is
like a god to them. Go to

655
00:40:15.840 --> 00:40:19.320
the next day, They're playing in
La at the LRA. I think it

656
00:40:19.360 --> 00:40:21.800
was the next show. They had
to do two shows. They added a

657
00:40:21.840 --> 00:40:24.360
second show like literally the day before
because it was that much demand for for

658
00:40:24.440 --> 00:40:29.920
Wiz. So fast is like,
Bro, this isn't like the chemistry.

659
00:40:29.920 --> 00:40:31.800
It means Soto's not there. We
practice, it's just the vibe isn't there,

660
00:40:31.800 --> 00:40:35.559
Like we're not really I'm not I'm
not feeling like I'm rocking it.

661
00:40:35.960 --> 00:40:37.760
So I said, okay, I'm
like, what do you want me to

662
00:40:37.760 --> 00:40:38.440
do? Is like, just come
out, bro, I need you to

663
00:40:38.480 --> 00:40:40.840
come out to San Diego. Fly
out. So I said, Soto,

664
00:40:42.199 --> 00:40:45.320
I'm gonna fly you back out and
pay for I'm flying it. Yeah,

665
00:40:45.719 --> 00:40:47.840
and then I saw first time in
San Diego and then the rest of the

666
00:40:47.840 --> 00:40:51.119
way, I was like, holy
crap, let's do this out of here.

667
00:40:51.400 --> 00:40:53.320
During that time, what was the
Wiz hit song? Like Yellow?

668
00:40:53.400 --> 00:40:57.400
No Black and Yellow happened after this
was Cushion Orange. Just the mixtape Oh

669
00:40:57.480 --> 00:41:01.360
okay, it was literally his mixtape. He didn't have like a hit record.

670
00:41:01.400 --> 00:41:06.360
It was a hit mixtape. Like
every song on is mixtape he performed.

671
00:41:06.400 --> 00:41:08.480
Every kid knew every song. I
feel like Wiz was kind of like

672
00:41:08.519 --> 00:41:13.320
one of the first of that generation
where they would pop off through the mixtape

673
00:41:13.320 --> 00:41:16.280
and the fans really building them up
and then crossing over to commercial. Wiz

674
00:41:16.360 --> 00:41:20.079
was like one of the first to
like really do that on a big scale,

675
00:41:20.119 --> 00:41:22.239
you know. I mean we did
like ten mixtapes prior to that.

676
00:41:22.280 --> 00:41:25.199
Mixtapes is what you did in that
era, Like you didn't put out albums

677
00:41:25.280 --> 00:41:29.360
unless like a label paid form.
So you just exactly yeah, right.

678
00:41:29.800 --> 00:41:34.719
And so Wiz being on Warner Brothers, getting released, going independent, doing

679
00:41:34.719 --> 00:41:37.960
that mixtape, and then automatically just
getting back to a major that quick because

680
00:41:38.039 --> 00:41:42.440
now he now he made the rules, like he was deciding what was happening

681
00:41:42.480 --> 00:41:45.679
with his with his album Black and
Yellow happened July of that summer. We

682
00:41:45.719 --> 00:41:51.599
did the tour with him, I
think April met March April May. We

683
00:41:51.679 --> 00:41:53.559
came back. It was his birthday. Black and Eale had just dropped and

684
00:41:53.599 --> 00:41:57.280
he called us to go out to
Vegas with him for his birthday. And

685
00:41:57.320 --> 00:42:00.920
I remember that's when Black and El
was just out of here, That's right,

686
00:42:00.920 --> 00:42:04.280
because then he had the was it
say I was it? That song?

687
00:42:04.480 --> 00:42:06.639
Say what was it? Because he
came to the radio station and he

688
00:42:06.719 --> 00:42:09.599
kind of really wasn't it wasn't Black
and Yellow era y seven waight he was

689
00:42:09.639 --> 00:42:13.400
signed to Warner Brothers. Yeah,
I think that's what it was. Record

690
00:42:13.440 --> 00:42:15.039
and it didn't really take off.
Yeah, I think that's what it was.

691
00:42:16.079 --> 00:42:20.880
Before we move on to the next
subject. I'm always interested how you

692
00:42:20.920 --> 00:42:24.360
know, uh DJs or just people
in the music industry get their name and

693
00:42:24.480 --> 00:42:29.159
obviously it has a piece of your
last name on it, but who gave

694
00:42:29.159 --> 00:42:34.280
you the name Hectic? You name
yourself? Seventh grade, when I went

695
00:42:34.400 --> 00:42:37.400
try out for football, coach couldn't
say my name. He called me like

696
00:42:37.440 --> 00:42:43.480
me earlier, he called me heck
that's my name, right, So then

697
00:42:43.559 --> 00:42:46.119
the kids started calling me hecky.
That was my name, and so the

698
00:42:46.119 --> 00:42:50.719
girls would call me hecky whatever else
money. So and then when I got

699
00:42:50.719 --> 00:42:53.639
into high school, was still Hecky. And then my boy would call me

700
00:42:53.719 --> 00:42:57.960
heck, like what's up, heck, And then it became heck right.

701
00:42:58.400 --> 00:43:02.039
And then when I started DJing my
boys like, oh, your name's me

702
00:43:02.119 --> 00:43:07.239
DJ Hectic, it just sort of
like evolved through the years. I always

703
00:43:07.280 --> 00:43:13.760
like it was just that's what I
was. I didn't really I'm not one

704
00:43:13.840 --> 00:43:15.440
to sit there and try to get
all creative about the words and the names

705
00:43:15.480 --> 00:43:19.239
and stuff like that. I'm like, let's keep it quick and let's keep

706
00:43:19.239 --> 00:43:21.440
it moving. To me, I'm
not gonna sit there and dwell on it

707
00:43:21.480 --> 00:43:28.880
forever. You know. Obviously with
your timeline, you could tell that you

708
00:43:29.000 --> 00:43:32.239
always were a person that you're just
gonna do it yourself. You know,

709
00:43:32.440 --> 00:43:36.280
like if no one's gonna do this, I'm gonna step up. I'm gonna

710
00:43:36.320 --> 00:43:37.719
do the manager, I'm gonna do
the DJ thing, I'm gonna make the

711
00:43:37.760 --> 00:43:42.320
beats. Yeah, I'm gonna create. You're a creator. So that brings

712
00:43:42.400 --> 00:43:47.079
us to were you doing were you
started now I'm talking about bigger stuff.

713
00:43:49.199 --> 00:43:53.960
What were you producing events wise before
Grizzly Fest, and then go into how

714
00:43:54.000 --> 00:43:59.639
that how grizzly Fest came about.
I would say that probably did close to

715
00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:06.119
fifty sixty shows prior to like even
doing that first Crazy fest. I mean

716
00:44:06.280 --> 00:44:09.320
Fascist Baby album. I did the
big show at Tower Theater for him.

717
00:44:09.760 --> 00:44:14.840
I did numerous shows of him in
this star lineback then, our strummers.

718
00:44:15.199 --> 00:44:20.119
I did a lot of artists.
I mean I book Tip Quality multiple times.

719
00:44:20.199 --> 00:44:22.960
Ghosts Face would come through. I'd
book him it didn't matter who was

720
00:44:22.000 --> 00:44:24.599
I was doing, like the hip
hop shows by Sellia, I was going

721
00:44:24.639 --> 00:44:27.599
down there. That's why I met
Aaron Gomes. I started doing the hip

722
00:44:27.599 --> 00:44:32.880
hop shows out there. It was
just like anyone from leaving Legend's grouches whoever.

723
00:44:32.920 --> 00:44:35.599
Like they'd called me like, yo, heck, we want to do

724
00:44:35.639 --> 00:44:37.719
a show in Fresno. You're the
guy to talk to you. I'm like,

725
00:44:37.760 --> 00:44:39.320
okay, let's do it. Like
what do you want, Let's do

726
00:44:39.360 --> 00:44:44.679
the show. And I started doing
those shows, and you know, you

727
00:44:44.760 --> 00:44:47.000
learn about backline, you learn about
all the process and promoting and all that

728
00:44:47.000 --> 00:44:52.960
stuff, and so I was that
was like and the promotion aspect was natural

729
00:44:52.960 --> 00:44:57.920
to me. That wasn't very difficult. I just had to learned the nuances

730
00:44:57.920 --> 00:45:00.320
of how a show operates. And
over time he just learned that right doing

731
00:45:00.360 --> 00:45:07.800
it. And there was a period
in whereland in La and I was basically

732
00:45:07.840 --> 00:45:12.360
tour managing co managing Merz with fas
Shaw when they did the album together,

733
00:45:13.079 --> 00:45:17.239
and Mergy at that time had paid
paid dues that festival. He had and

734
00:45:17.400 --> 00:45:22.079
paid dues was believe it or not, doing more numbers than Rock the Bells

735
00:45:22.440 --> 00:45:28.840
Wow, right, because mers he
The last one he ever did had Kendrick

736
00:45:29.440 --> 00:45:32.079
Black Hippie, and I believe it
was Maclimore with the headliners. And that's

737
00:45:32.079 --> 00:45:37.360
what mclimore was huge, and like
Kendrick was starting to take off really big.

738
00:45:37.639 --> 00:45:40.440
Okay, So I think they had
like thirty or forty thousand people show

739
00:45:40.480 --> 00:45:43.599
up to that event. Yeah,
I think they did. The biggest show

740
00:45:43.760 --> 00:45:46.599
Grilla Union did was that one show. So when I was with mrs and

741
00:45:46.639 --> 00:45:50.280
I was doing a lot of events, we'd be like on on the East

742
00:45:50.320 --> 00:45:53.400
Coast doing rock Paid dues or Rock
the Bell shows. Because I was we

743
00:45:53.480 --> 00:45:58.320
had like a run together and I
got really close with Murs and he was

744
00:45:58.360 --> 00:46:04.400
really big on like the business aspect
of how he operated from an artists standpoint,

745
00:46:04.440 --> 00:46:07.119
whether it throwing his own festival or
shows, you know, the living

746
00:46:07.199 --> 00:46:10.119
legends. That's how they kind of
made it coming up. And then there

747
00:46:10.159 --> 00:46:14.360
was a kind of Atmosphere. That's
when I had booked I never booked him.

748
00:46:14.360 --> 00:46:15.519
I always wanted to, but I
actually had a single with Atmosphere in

749
00:46:15.559 --> 00:46:20.360
two thousand and four or five.
It was on Tony Hawk. It was

750
00:46:20.360 --> 00:46:22.280
like the lead song on Tony Hawk
that I produced, and I met him

751
00:46:22.280 --> 00:46:24.960
at Coachell and four gave him a
B tape. He got on it,

752
00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:28.159
and then I threw a sop on
it and that became their single as well.

753
00:46:28.199 --> 00:46:30.400
It's actually like their biggest, I
think, one of their most played

754
00:46:30.400 --> 00:46:32.800
songs from the Living Legends, and
I haven't made a dime off it,

755
00:46:32.880 --> 00:46:36.400
just to let people know you don't
always make money off it. Just about

756
00:46:36.400 --> 00:46:39.280
that. I heard the song and
a best Buy and I was like,

757
00:46:39.280 --> 00:46:43.239
wait a minute, that's my song. And there's kids at the time in

758
00:46:43.280 --> 00:46:46.039
bestball you could like demo games and
they're playing Tony Hawk, the Project eight

759
00:46:46.119 --> 00:46:49.480
or one of the whatever, the
Big Project whatever it was, and I

760
00:46:49.519 --> 00:46:52.880
was like, this is my song. Wow, oh wow, I did

761
00:46:52.960 --> 00:46:57.000
nothing. Anyways, long story,
there's a whole there's a podcast out there

762
00:46:57.000 --> 00:47:00.840
going to discussing how murdering me and
what's got to fight? Oh diego read

763
00:47:00.039 --> 00:47:05.840
in Petaluma. But anyways, but
we became really close respect to mers,

764
00:47:07.360 --> 00:47:13.280
and I saw how pay dues operated, and then Rhyme sayers they throw their

765
00:47:13.320 --> 00:47:17.679
big festival in Minneapolis, right and
that one gets like fifty sixty thousand people.

766
00:47:17.719 --> 00:47:22.119
It's huge, and we played it
fashion and played it sound sets.

767
00:47:22.119 --> 00:47:24.039
The name of the festival. So
when I'd go to these events, like

768
00:47:24.159 --> 00:47:27.719
I would just see how things were
operating. I would look at it and

769
00:47:27.800 --> 00:47:30.119
be like, Okay, here's the
stage, here's this, here's that like.

770
00:47:30.840 --> 00:47:34.480
And I was just like super just
in my head, just pinpointing,

771
00:47:34.599 --> 00:47:37.840
how is this? How can I
make this work? Because in college I

772
00:47:37.880 --> 00:47:39.800
always want to do music festival.
When I was first doing the music stuff

773
00:47:39.840 --> 00:47:42.840
in the station, I'd walk to
the campus. I'm gonna put a stage

774
00:47:42.840 --> 00:47:45.079
here, I'm gonna do this,
I'm gonna do this. Right, I

775
00:47:45.119 --> 00:47:49.000
saw the vision because it was like
warped tour was going on. There was

776
00:47:49.119 --> 00:47:51.960
things that happened when we were younger, like little festivals that we'd see,

777
00:47:52.159 --> 00:47:57.639
but it wasn't like as common.
Right, So through mers, I had

778
00:47:57.639 --> 00:48:00.719
a conversation He's like, you should
just do you s your like you should

779
00:48:00.719 --> 00:48:01.280
do one at Fresne. I was
like, well, okay. So I

780
00:48:01.360 --> 00:48:04.239
had a meeting with Grilla Union.
I was like, hey, would you

781
00:48:04.239 --> 00:48:07.920
guys want to do a one shot
like a one off fessional Fresnel and change

782
00:48:08.119 --> 00:48:10.239
was like, nah, last thing
we did in Fresne was a rave in

783
00:48:10.320 --> 00:48:14.320
like nineteen ninety nine and blah blah
blah blah blah. We didn't really like

784
00:48:14.400 --> 00:48:16.440
Fresnel too much, and so they
shot it down. Wait this company that

785
00:48:16.519 --> 00:48:21.280
you're talking to, they they they're
the ones that put ll Okay, they

786
00:48:21.360 --> 00:48:24.559
did all the rock to bells and
you know they've been promoters and stuff for

787
00:48:24.800 --> 00:48:29.280
for a long time. They're still
doing little shows now. But and he

788
00:48:29.360 --> 00:48:35.480
shot me down with the office Panoma
Pomona and okay cool. So then you

789
00:48:35.559 --> 00:48:38.119
know, I'm I'm sitting with fash
and when my name was like, hey,

790
00:48:38.159 --> 00:48:40.920
bro, like I really won't put
this festival on. You know you

791
00:48:42.000 --> 00:48:44.440
want in all this, Like I'm
gonna, you know, do x y

792
00:48:44.599 --> 00:48:47.760
Z And he's like sure. And
then my boy Evan, he had a

793
00:48:50.039 --> 00:48:54.800
shop here, medicinal We'll call him
Medicinal shop. And he was the one

794
00:48:54.840 --> 00:48:58.360
that came up with the cruzal cited
cush. He's the one that found a

795
00:48:58.360 --> 00:49:00.440
strain and he collaborated and he was
my best friends since I was before my

796
00:49:00.559 --> 00:49:07.639
first buddy and we reconnected later in
life. And he that's cuz to say

797
00:49:07.679 --> 00:49:08.960
the cush came out. He's like, hey, bro, I'm down apartment

798
00:49:08.960 --> 00:49:10.679
with you if you need it.
I'm like I'm in LA. I can't

799
00:49:10.679 --> 00:49:14.280
operate this thing like I need to. He's like, I'll take it off,

800
00:49:14.519 --> 00:49:17.760
and so he went out to He's
like, let's do it the at

801
00:49:17.800 --> 00:49:21.639
the fairgrounds. I was like,
I hate the fairgrounds. I don't want

802
00:49:21.639 --> 00:49:23.480
to do whatever. We didn't have
options, you know, because everything else

803
00:49:23.519 --> 00:49:27.519
I tried to do shot me down. Everybody shot me down. That's the

804
00:49:27.519 --> 00:49:30.679
thing with people don't realize is you're
gonna get eight no's for one yesep so,

805
00:49:31.840 --> 00:49:34.840
and I was like, I tried
this place, that place. I'm

806
00:49:34.880 --> 00:49:36.559
like, bro, and he's like, I can get the fair grounds.

807
00:49:36.639 --> 00:49:37.840
I'm like, whatever, let's do
the fair grounds. And no knock to

808
00:49:37.880 --> 00:49:44.239
the fair grounds. It's just inside. Yes, Like this is twenty twelve,

809
00:49:44.519 --> 00:49:47.199
the first one right. And so
I wanted like food trucks. I

810
00:49:47.280 --> 00:49:50.760
wanted stuff. Nobody was really doing
this stuff back then. So my uncle

811
00:49:50.800 --> 00:49:52.400
owns a commissary. So I've been
in food trucks since the eighties. Like

812
00:49:52.519 --> 00:49:55.760
I've seen every food truck in town
that started way back when. And like

813
00:49:55.880 --> 00:50:00.400
he that I was around that my
whole life. And I was like and

814
00:50:00.719 --> 00:50:04.400
there was a food truck, Dusty
Buns that just said that I remember them.

815
00:50:04.480 --> 00:50:06.400
They were the ones out of Tower
I think it was Dusty Buns and

816
00:50:06.440 --> 00:50:07.960
they were out in like San fran
and I was like, we should get

817
00:50:08.000 --> 00:50:12.320
some food trucks and make a different
and do this and that. And I

818
00:50:12.400 --> 00:50:15.480
didn't see that at the festivals,
you know, they were just regular festival

819
00:50:15.519 --> 00:50:19.000
concessionaires. And so they said,
Nope, you can't do that. And

820
00:50:19.119 --> 00:50:21.920
then I remember I did a deal
with bud Light. It was funny story,

821
00:50:22.440 --> 00:50:25.480
and you learned. This is how
you learned the process. And I

822
00:50:25.559 --> 00:50:29.639
went to high school with the girl
who was a marketing director for bud Light.

823
00:50:29.719 --> 00:50:31.559
Her family actually owns it. And
she's like, yeah, cool.

824
00:50:31.800 --> 00:50:35.360
She doesn't tell me that I'm gonna
get screwed. At the last minute.

825
00:50:36.280 --> 00:50:37.679
She was pushing. She's like,
oh, you gotta you got. You're

826
00:50:37.719 --> 00:50:40.960
confident in this school. I'm gonna
ride with this. Literally the night before

827
00:50:40.960 --> 00:50:45.639
we're setting up the stage all our
bud Light stuff, like our beer ports,

828
00:50:45.679 --> 00:50:47.199
they start taking them down. They're
like, oh, this is a

829
00:50:47.320 --> 00:50:52.199
course life venue or whatever, and
so I'm fighting with them. I'm like,

830
00:50:52.239 --> 00:50:54.280
bro, they're giving us money for
this festival, like whatever. And

831
00:50:54.480 --> 00:50:59.400
so I'm on I'm on email with
her and she's like, well that's whatever,

832
00:50:59.440 --> 00:51:00.920
and she's pretty upset, and then
they gave us one little place to

833
00:51:01.000 --> 00:51:04.599
so but like, you know,
she was cool, so she took care

834
00:51:04.639 --> 00:51:06.719
of me. So shout out to
shout out to her. She's awesome.

835
00:51:07.840 --> 00:51:10.760
But we did that first one and
I think we got like maybe fifteen hundred

836
00:51:10.760 --> 00:51:14.960
people. I don't even remember the
first I was actually I was actually like

837
00:51:15.079 --> 00:51:16.760
host that. Yeah. It was
me and Rich Yeah, him and Rich

838
00:51:16.840 --> 00:51:19.960
cost it. It was like maybe
in and out. I think we were

839
00:51:19.960 --> 00:51:22.079
close about fifteen hundred people. It
wasn't like a big financial like, it

840
00:51:22.159 --> 00:51:24.199
wasn't a loss, it wasn't a
money maker. It was just it is

841
00:51:24.280 --> 00:51:27.320
what it was. It was like
the first of it, right, was

842
00:51:27.400 --> 00:51:30.119
it just a majority of just it
was low hip hop, all local hip

843
00:51:30.159 --> 00:51:36.000
hop and was I think, yeah, we got a strong arm steady I

844
00:51:36.000 --> 00:51:37.840
think to from out of town because
I was managing them at the time too.

845
00:51:38.039 --> 00:51:40.199
I did their Stony Jackson album,
so they're like, we want to

846
00:51:40.239 --> 00:51:44.199
do show. So that was the
first Grizzly Yeah, that was the first

847
00:51:44.280 --> 00:51:46.840
one, and it was called Grizzly
Fest. Yeah. November of twenty twelve.

848
00:51:47.360 --> 00:51:52.000
November seventeenth, I think to be
exact, and my boy and Ned

849
00:51:52.039 --> 00:51:57.599
always sends me the reminder of the
day too every year, but he yeah,

850
00:51:57.639 --> 00:52:00.400
we did that. And then this
great period i'll tell you about fash

851
00:52:00.519 --> 00:52:04.280
kind of happened thirteen. Like I
We're like, what are we doing?

852
00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:07.920
And then when the NAS thing happened, I said, I'm bringing it back,

853
00:52:07.159 --> 00:52:10.480
but I'm gonna do it in a
whole different way. And I called

854
00:52:10.559 --> 00:52:15.880
my boy Aaron Gomes because Catacomb did
an event at fourteen that we played I

855
00:52:15.960 --> 00:52:19.000
think at Full Tama, and I
loved it, but I just felt like

856
00:52:19.119 --> 00:52:22.119
it was like a swap meat style
of an event. I was like,

857
00:52:22.239 --> 00:52:24.239
this is cool, but nah,
this ain't it. We got it.

858
00:52:24.440 --> 00:52:28.599
It's got to be more organized,
it's got to be more thorough. But

859
00:52:28.679 --> 00:52:30.440
I love the energy and the creativity
that they have. I just didn't think

860
00:52:30.480 --> 00:52:36.760
it was organized the right way.
And so I fifteen happened. I got

861
00:52:36.800 --> 00:52:37.639
a bunch of no's everywhere, and
I said, hey, Aaron, I

862
00:52:37.679 --> 00:52:40.159
want to do this, but let's
make it like hip hop, reggae rock,

863
00:52:40.239 --> 00:52:44.960
whatever, let's mix guenre this thing
up. And and Aaron Gomes really

864
00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:46.440
big in the rock in that kind
of indie rock world. I mean,

865
00:52:46.480 --> 00:52:52.400
he's booked a lot of big artists
and Visellia and so I'm talking with Sam

866
00:52:52.480 --> 00:52:55.000
and he's like, bro, please
bring it to Grizzy Sitting and we can

867
00:52:55.039 --> 00:52:58.039
do it here. We need we
need, we need to get the we

868
00:52:58.119 --> 00:53:01.840
need to bring the urban energy to
this. Sam is trying to get marketing

869
00:53:02.320 --> 00:53:06.440
people to that stadium. It's like
I can convince Derek to do it here

870
00:53:06.480 --> 00:53:08.519
and we can blah blah blah blah
blah. I'm like, all right,

871
00:53:08.559 --> 00:53:10.599
cool, well, sure, let
me let me do a tour of the

872
00:53:10.639 --> 00:53:14.039
place. I tore it in a
huge place, like what am I gonna

873
00:53:14.039 --> 00:53:19.280
do with this? And I remember
we did our first walk through before we

874
00:53:19.320 --> 00:53:21.840
even agree to do it, and
the guy goes, how many peopleould expect

875
00:53:21.840 --> 00:53:23.760
to be here? And we're gonna
I was like four thousand people, and

876
00:53:23.840 --> 00:53:28.320
he laughed at me, was you're
not gonna get two thousand. I'm like,

877
00:53:28.320 --> 00:53:30.559
all right, cool, we'll see. And then I did it free

878
00:53:30.639 --> 00:53:34.599
the first year, but we did
it through. At that time with Fascists

879
00:53:34.599 --> 00:53:37.199
album. I started doing like these
little voucher type combos, like if you

880
00:53:37.239 --> 00:53:39.920
support a local business, you can
get in the free listening party for fashion

881
00:53:39.960 --> 00:53:45.800
on or go spend money at what's
the downtown the Chinatown soul food spot,

882
00:53:49.360 --> 00:53:52.079
go to Chef Paul's. First ten
people to go Chef Paul's, bring a

883
00:53:52.119 --> 00:53:53.800
receipt, whatever boom you get,
and I'm gonna give him ten tickets.

884
00:53:53.840 --> 00:53:57.000
You get into the show for free, but you have to spend money with

885
00:53:57.159 --> 00:54:00.079
Chef Paul, or go to this
business. Spend money with them, you

886
00:54:00.079 --> 00:54:01.920
can get an event. And I
was doing that all throughout throughout the city.

887
00:54:02.679 --> 00:54:07.159
So I mean, I remember I
went to like Granville. I was

888
00:54:07.199 --> 00:54:09.360
like, you have all these homes, here's two thousand tickets. Anybody that

889
00:54:09.440 --> 00:54:13.159
lives in your apartments because they spent
money in downtown, you can go to

890
00:54:13.239 --> 00:54:16.760
the concert for free. I was
doing like super forward thinking marketing, how

891
00:54:16.800 --> 00:54:20.280
to build it, will you name
it? And everyone was like, you're

892
00:54:20.280 --> 00:54:22.360
not going to get a lot of
people at this thing. And it was

893
00:54:22.559 --> 00:54:29.679
HBK Bash, a band called Delta
Delta Spirit, and this other rock guy,

894
00:54:29.719 --> 00:54:31.840
Aaron Gums Wanted. He was really
good but just kind of coming up

895
00:54:31.960 --> 00:54:37.679
but whatever, and then you know
the local acts that were that were doing

896
00:54:37.719 --> 00:54:40.920
really well at the time, and
I think we got sixty five seven thousand

897
00:54:40.960 --> 00:54:46.840
through the gate right and it was
free and all the money came from sponsorships

898
00:54:47.559 --> 00:54:52.960
and concession sales. That's where,
yeah, sponsorships. Yeah, it was

899
00:54:53.360 --> 00:54:57.320
everything. All the expenses were done
and I had partnered with Derek on it.

900
00:54:57.360 --> 00:54:59.960
I was like, if you cover
all the expenses, I'll go get

901
00:55:00.079 --> 00:55:02.239
sponsors. I'll do this in concessions
and we'll do it that way. And

902
00:55:04.039 --> 00:55:07.159
it like was break even. It
was like seven eight thousand dollars made on

903
00:55:07.199 --> 00:55:08.960
the event. And then he was
like, I'll just donate to Aaron Golm's

904
00:55:09.000 --> 00:55:14.599
nonprofit Sound of Vision for kids to
get free instruments and music equipments and lessons,

905
00:55:14.800 --> 00:55:17.199
which was awesome of Derek. So
then the sixteen came around and I

906
00:55:17.280 --> 00:55:20.360
was like I need to up this
bro, like we got to spend some

907
00:55:20.440 --> 00:55:22.199
more money. And he's like,
well, what do you mean. I

908
00:55:22.280 --> 00:55:24.599
was like, well, I'm wanting
to put money into it. Do you

909
00:55:24.639 --> 00:55:28.719
want to match me now? Because
now I got a partner, and they're

910
00:55:28.760 --> 00:55:30.920
like, no, we don't really
want to put money into it. To

911
00:55:30.960 --> 00:55:32.440
Matt, they don't. Nobody wants
to take the risk. So I was

912
00:55:32.480 --> 00:55:36.519
like okay, and my business part
is my brother. We work together,

913
00:55:36.519 --> 00:55:39.320
we have healthcare facilities. And he's
the one that he's always every music thing

914
00:55:39.360 --> 00:55:42.960
I've done, he's been around like
he knows, he loves it. He's

915
00:55:42.960 --> 00:55:45.960
always like consulting me, supported me, did my photo shoots, whatever it

916
00:55:46.119 --> 00:55:49.440
was. And so my brother's like, bro, if we're gonna do this,

917
00:55:49.599 --> 00:55:52.480
like spend some money, like what
these guys doing. Like yeah,

918
00:55:52.639 --> 00:55:54.760
yeah, so we upped it made
it bigger. That second I was with

919
00:55:54.800 --> 00:55:58.719
Atmosphere took me like fourteen years of
the book. This guy in Fresno,

920
00:55:58.800 --> 00:56:01.639
he said, yes, the first
time, the same venue you guys are

921
00:56:01.639 --> 00:56:06.519
still doing the same thing at and
we you know, just had to take

922
00:56:06.519 --> 00:56:07.840
a prize with thirty five bucks.
Cold War Kids that booked them, and

923
00:56:07.920 --> 00:56:12.360
at that time they had first was
their song that was taken off and they

924
00:56:12.400 --> 00:56:15.280
had a good following. And then
slightly stupid was the reggae act they played

925
00:56:15.280 --> 00:56:19.280
at Present State in one. It
was like the only time and so and

926
00:56:19.360 --> 00:56:22.320
they were a big reggae act at
that time, that California reggae. So

927
00:56:22.480 --> 00:56:25.440
we did that, did very well, financially, did great. Cool packed

928
00:56:25.519 --> 00:56:30.079
up all the money paid everybody,
put it right back into the account.

929
00:56:30.119 --> 00:56:31.119
I said, next year, we're
gonna put that money plus more for the

930
00:56:31.199 --> 00:56:35.960
next year. And I did seventeen
and that was when E forty loope and

931
00:56:36.000 --> 00:56:39.480
all that stuff happened. We added
more to that pile. But every year

932
00:56:39.519 --> 00:56:44.280
we were doing it, it was
like literally by the threat of the hair,

933
00:56:44.360 --> 00:56:46.920
we're able to production like make it
work production wise, Like we can

934
00:56:47.000 --> 00:56:50.800
get in the day before and we
had to be out there next morning because

935
00:56:50.800 --> 00:56:53.280
Cruzi has had a game that Monday, or they'd fired Like at one year,

936
00:56:53.280 --> 00:56:55.880
they'd find like a little bottle of
glass and then they're complaining to the

937
00:56:57.039 --> 00:56:59.960
MiLB and then Derek is getting a
bunch of flag. Yeah, I understand,

938
00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:02.119
and the understand everything is like getting
tied in my production people are like,

939
00:57:02.480 --> 00:57:05.679
we can't keep doing this, bro, Like you're making it bigger and

940
00:57:05.760 --> 00:57:08.440
bigger and bigger, and we have
this much time to make this thing work.

941
00:57:08.519 --> 00:57:10.280
Yeah. So when I go to
Derek, I'm like, hey,

942
00:57:10.679 --> 00:57:14.800
can I get a seven day block? Give me like three days to set

943
00:57:14.840 --> 00:57:15.920
this up and then give me at
least two days to get out of here,

944
00:57:16.480 --> 00:57:20.280
right am I. We won't give
it. They won't give you the

945
00:57:20.320 --> 00:57:22.199
same weekend you want they control the
stadium. Blah blah. It was all

946
00:57:22.320 --> 00:57:27.599
this pom ilb. Yeah, you
know, Baseball's controlling my life. I'm

947
00:57:27.599 --> 00:57:30.360
like, all right, whatever and
so and then they're like, we need

948
00:57:30.440 --> 00:57:32.039
you to cover the field, and
it's gonna cost this the field covering,

949
00:57:32.079 --> 00:57:35.719
you see. Now they ended up
purchasing it like back then for me to

950
00:57:35.800 --> 00:57:37.960
rent it in twenty eighteen, it
was like seventy five g's damn right,

951
00:57:38.039 --> 00:57:40.679
and I had to bring it from
the Giant Stadium or Oaklan a is one

952
00:57:40.679 --> 00:57:45.119
of the two there had it.
And I'm like, okay, so I'm

953
00:57:45.159 --> 00:57:47.119
gonna spend this money. I can't
put on the same day I want.

954
00:57:47.800 --> 00:57:52.599
You know, I broke concession records. I broke everything on that twenty seventeen

955
00:57:52.760 --> 00:57:57.599
festival, like before Santealon came into
the Mexican shows and they just they shited

956
00:57:57.599 --> 00:58:00.840
it on me, basically with the
concessions cause they be drinking their beer.

957
00:58:00.920 --> 00:58:05.239
Boy, I tell you make some
money there. But we broke everything.

958
00:58:05.599 --> 00:58:08.119
And then I was like, Derek, I'm putting more money into this.

959
00:58:08.199 --> 00:58:12.840
I'm booking bigger artists. Now,
We're not a small event where agents are

960
00:58:12.880 --> 00:58:15.039
just letting us get an artist for
like a cool rate. They're like,

961
00:58:15.440 --> 00:58:17.840
how much money you guys making?
Right, He's going up Now it's people

962
00:58:17.880 --> 00:58:22.599
are contacting you. Yes, Oh
my gosh. So it becomes now the

963
00:58:22.719 --> 00:58:24.440
artist you think is we're sixty thousand
once one hundred thousand, and now you

964
00:58:24.480 --> 00:58:28.400
got to negotiate that even twenty k
here, twenty k here, twenty k

965
00:58:28.559 --> 00:58:31.320
here. That adds up, right, and so you're you're mitigated, like

966
00:58:31.480 --> 00:58:37.719
Risks is literally narrowing up. So
I was telling Derek, I was like,

967
00:58:37.760 --> 00:58:39.920
I need I need you guys Like, I'm like, I'm making no

968
00:58:40.079 --> 00:58:44.400
beer sponsorship money. Mind you,
they paid the stadium for the whole year.

969
00:58:44.559 --> 00:58:46.599
I get nothing. I sell the
hell out of beer. I'm like,

970
00:58:46.880 --> 00:58:50.039
bro, I can go to my
own place and they'll cut me a

971
00:58:50.119 --> 00:58:53.000
six figure check. Like I can
go places and I can get I could

972
00:58:53.039 --> 00:58:57.119
demand things. Because I'm if I'm
spending this much money on talent, got

973
00:58:57.159 --> 00:59:00.079
this brand now I've built, and
this many people are coming out, I

974
00:59:00.199 --> 00:59:04.840
deserve to get my fair share of
the pot. So that's what led us

975
00:59:04.920 --> 00:59:09.280
to explore taking away from Crchancey right, And it wasn't about like we want

976
00:59:09.320 --> 00:59:13.559
to leave downtown. It was about
the money wasn't right, Like, I'm

977
00:59:13.599 --> 00:59:15.360
not going to keep investing in putting
all this and I mean it gets into

978
00:59:15.360 --> 00:59:17.760
the millions, right, Yeah,
I'm not going to keep investing all this

979
00:59:17.880 --> 00:59:23.159
money into this thing and everybody downtown
getting all the praise. All great,

980
00:59:23.280 --> 00:59:27.360
you know we're making all this,
but nobody wants to cut the cut a

981
00:59:27.400 --> 00:59:30.559
piece of the pie. So it
wasn't Derek's fault. Derek did nothing.

982
00:59:30.599 --> 00:59:32.840
Derek was actually great. He was
trying to make it happen. It was

983
00:59:32.920 --> 00:59:36.719
just the powers of be The ownership
groups were changing at the Grizzlies, and

984
00:59:37.400 --> 00:59:40.320
so the city manager that at that
time I had about me and Aaron goins

985
00:59:40.320 --> 00:59:45.360
into like six places in the valley
from Really area to the Hanford area looking

986
00:59:45.400 --> 00:59:49.320
for a new looking at venues,
were just looking at field spaces. Yeah,

987
00:59:49.360 --> 00:59:52.639
yeah, let's just find a spot. We looked. One of them

988
00:59:52.880 --> 00:59:55.159
was did you go to Granite Park? Granite Park, Yeah, but that

989
00:59:55.480 --> 00:59:59.519
wasn't. It was there, but
the parking wasn't. It wasn't legit.

990
01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:02.960
The phraser trying to get me to
take it there every year. What's the

991
01:00:04.039 --> 01:00:07.519
place out and on the west side
of the big road, no pass roading

992
01:00:08.800 --> 01:00:14.800
is the roating Park no way out
there off of California. I can't.

993
01:00:15.039 --> 01:00:16.760
My names are horrible today. No, I think we've done events of it.

994
01:00:16.880 --> 01:00:19.840
Yeah, there's events all the time. There's like the Medie even when

995
01:00:19.880 --> 01:00:22.960
they do there every year. That's
pretty big. And yeah, I don't

996
01:00:22.960 --> 01:00:24.880
know the name of it too,
but I know they still asked me till

997
01:00:24.920 --> 01:00:28.360
this day they do something that I'm
like, nah. And then we looked

998
01:00:28.360 --> 01:00:30.599
at Woodward and I looked at Woodward
and I was walking. I'm like,

999
01:00:30.760 --> 01:00:34.559
man, I could put the stage
here and I'm just walking logistically, just

1000
01:00:34.719 --> 01:00:38.440
putting in my head real quick.
Remind me, did has anything happened at

1001
01:00:38.480 --> 01:00:45.119
Woodward Park? That has no no
right? There was no taco thing we

1002
01:00:45.280 --> 01:00:50.559
went to had like maybe a thousand
people, and they had like a stage

1003
01:00:50.599 --> 01:00:54.239
out there. I think it was
through New Rock one O four one of

1004
01:00:54.280 --> 01:00:58.599
those guys not or that station may
have tried to do like a they're trying

1005
01:00:58.639 --> 01:01:02.960
to buy Talk Throat out so they
had done like a mock bootleg taco I

1006
01:01:04.000 --> 01:01:07.000
think I remember that. So,
but we had already we had already booked

1007
01:01:07.039 --> 01:01:09.760
our stuff there with Bruce. Prior
to this, I hadn't I hadn't seen

1008
01:01:09.840 --> 01:01:15.119
anything, right, I just saw
blank canvas and Bruce was like, yeah,

1009
01:01:15.159 --> 01:01:15.719
we could do it here. I
love if you know, if you

1010
01:01:15.800 --> 01:01:19.639
can, we can make this work. I'm like, okay, so what

1011
01:01:19.719 --> 01:01:22.480
are the parameters. I know we
probably got to get going, but whatever.

1012
01:01:22.960 --> 01:01:25.760
I look at the parameters. They're
they're not telling me much like yeah,

1013
01:01:25.840 --> 01:01:28.920
you could if you rent the place
and we could do this, we

1014
01:01:29.039 --> 01:01:30.719
could do a partnership here, blah
blah blah blah blah. And I'm like,

1015
01:01:30.760 --> 01:01:32.360
well, I need to go till
midnight. Bro, like, just

1016
01:01:32.440 --> 01:01:36.199
give me till midnight. Yeah,
they always got the good event, like

1017
01:01:36.400 --> 01:01:38.599
give me till midnight. And I'm
not even worried about like the alcohol cells

1018
01:01:38.599 --> 01:01:42.000
of it. I'm just like,
if I could do it till midnight,

1019
01:01:42.039 --> 01:01:43.760
it's it's awesome. So Bruce like, yeah, we could do that.

1020
01:01:45.039 --> 01:01:49.360
So I'm meeting with every council member
yes, yes, yes, yes,

1021
01:01:49.639 --> 01:01:52.960
And then I meet with Gary.
Not nothing bad about Gary, he originally

1022
01:01:53.000 --> 01:01:55.800
said yes to the event. He's
like, well, what does the city

1023
01:01:55.840 --> 01:01:58.960
get out of it? He's looking
at the business parameters. Cool, we

1024
01:01:59.039 --> 01:02:02.000
agree. So we're going like okay, great, and they're like, you

1025
01:02:02.079 --> 01:02:06.000
got you're pretty much you'll get the
vote to happen to go to midnight whatever

1026
01:02:06.079 --> 01:02:09.960
it is, right, no problem. We move forward and we're telling them

1027
01:02:10.000 --> 01:02:13.760
who we're booking. Like I'm in
a meeting saying we're gonna book Snoop already

1028
01:02:13.800 --> 01:02:16.800
I've been I've already been booking artists
because I got a planned. I remember

1029
01:02:16.920 --> 01:02:22.840
this story. We're gonna do Snoop
and this person, and I know and

1030
01:02:22.320 --> 01:02:25.239
vividly because I brought up Martha Stewart
every time, like if you could,

1031
01:02:25.360 --> 01:02:30.039
if Mark Stewer and Snoop, Like, trust me, Woodord Park is not

1032
01:02:30.079 --> 01:02:32.519
gonna be a big deal because I
know the political parameters. I'm not a

1033
01:02:32.599 --> 01:02:39.400
dummy. So everything went good.
We get our art lineup going, we

1034
01:02:39.519 --> 01:02:44.840
announce it. Yep, Gary's inbox
was flooded because Snoop was coming out.

1035
01:02:45.000 --> 01:02:46.960
Damn. I remember this next thing, you know, I get a call

1036
01:02:47.159 --> 01:02:52.760
like, hey, we got to
meet about this Snoop dogg blah blah blah.

1037
01:02:52.760 --> 01:02:53.920
I'm like, well we got to
meet about contracts have been signed,

1038
01:02:53.960 --> 01:02:57.920
you guys agreed whatever. So now
it's like, well, you mean,

1039
01:02:58.000 --> 01:03:00.719
I'm like you guys could talk to
my lawyers at this like We're not really

1040
01:03:00.760 --> 01:03:06.480
gonna get further into this conversation because
I've already paid my deposit, money's been

1041
01:03:06.719 --> 01:03:09.639
sent, been greenlit, boom,
We're gone city manager. At the time

1042
01:03:09.760 --> 01:03:13.639
green everybody said go forward with it. I'm like, this isn't Mickey mouse

1043
01:03:13.719 --> 01:03:17.679
thing I'm doing here. So long
story short, we went through that process.

1044
01:03:17.800 --> 01:03:20.920
I think put a big black eye
on the event. To be honest

1045
01:03:20.960 --> 01:03:22.159
with you, I think a lot
of people looked at it as a negative

1046
01:03:22.320 --> 01:03:28.760
energy event more than the momentum we
had built. I'm not a person that's

1047
01:03:29.119 --> 01:03:31.000
I'm not gonna litigate against people.
That's not my style. But like for

1048
01:03:31.119 --> 01:03:34.840
me in life, I'm like,
whatever you want this battle, I'm gonna

1049
01:03:34.880 --> 01:03:36.679
win it down the road. I'm
not worried about you right now. So

1050
01:03:37.800 --> 01:03:39.760
I could have done some things I
didn't. We made eighteen work. I

1051
01:03:39.800 --> 01:03:43.280
wanted a ten year deal. They
kept saying, no, they do it

1052
01:03:43.320 --> 01:03:45.199
again. And I mean I spent
month at security and neighborhoods. I cleaned

1053
01:03:45.280 --> 01:03:49.880
up neighborhoods. I did stuff that
no event, no producers, no promoter's

1054
01:03:49.960 --> 01:03:52.519
ever done. They put more PD
colls on me in twenty eighteen than they

1055
01:03:52.599 --> 01:03:55.559
do for the Fresle Fair. One
day they wanted me to pay for the

1056
01:03:55.599 --> 01:04:00.360
ghetto bird Wow, And I had
to fight, like, I'm not paying

1057
01:04:00.480 --> 01:04:03.039
for the helicopter to fly around this
thing ten thousand dollars just because you guys

1058
01:04:03.079 --> 01:04:06.039
think you can get me. Like, I had to fight. And a

1059
01:04:06.119 --> 01:04:09.840
lot of these people in the city, they some shady stuff happened to them.

1060
01:04:09.920 --> 01:04:14.360
People started falling off, right,
They're just they're not the most ethical

1061
01:04:14.360 --> 01:04:15.960
people. They're just gonna try to
hustle people when they can. And I

1062
01:04:16.079 --> 01:04:19.519
had the fight, man. And
then twenty nineteen, so wait real quick,

1063
01:04:19.559 --> 01:04:25.719
that Grizzly Fest happened. Yeah it
was nothing happened. Yeah, nothing,

1064
01:04:25.760 --> 01:04:29.400
but remind me, like the top
there was Snoop. It was Snoop

1065
01:04:29.519 --> 01:04:32.320
Nas Fossil, the people, Foster
the people. Yeah, I remember that

1066
01:04:33.800 --> 01:04:40.559
I booked what was the artist I
booked? I just remember Justico Genica was

1067
01:04:40.599 --> 01:04:45.400
there for Yeah, and she was
amazing that you had such an amazing lineup,

1068
01:04:45.480 --> 01:04:48.800
and you know, we were fortunate
to be a to be a part

1069
01:04:48.840 --> 01:04:53.639
of it. And it was just
the thing. It was dope because it

1070
01:04:53.719 --> 01:04:56.000
really did. It felt like a
legit. I mean, you had the

1071
01:04:56.000 --> 01:04:59.880
wristbands like everything about it felt like
a legit festival still lay out of it.

1072
01:05:00.159 --> 01:05:02.239
I still I mean, I still
go to see events and people still

1073
01:05:02.239 --> 01:05:06.400
aren't doing that. For me,
quality is the first and foremost thing.

1074
01:05:06.440 --> 01:05:11.239
I don't have to make money.
I want it to be the right way.

1075
01:05:11.360 --> 01:05:15.639
I want things to be done with
class quality promoters. The problem with

1076
01:05:15.760 --> 01:05:19.679
promoters. If I kept doing Grizzly
Fest, I could be making millions on

1077
01:05:19.800 --> 01:05:24.119
it. I could continue doing it. My heart's just not there for it.

1078
01:05:24.199 --> 01:05:26.679
Really, That's what's kind of like
pushing me away. Since COVID happened,

1079
01:05:26.719 --> 01:05:29.679
my other business really took off,
and I look at it and I'm

1080
01:05:29.679 --> 01:05:31.679
like, what am I really doing
this for? You really break it down,

1081
01:05:31.760 --> 01:05:34.239
like I'm spending all this time,
money and a for an energy,

1082
01:05:34.320 --> 01:05:39.840
but I'm getting all this pushback from
people. It's like I'm not really making

1083
01:05:39.920 --> 01:05:41.760
things better for people. At the
end of the day, I feel like,

1084
01:05:41.880 --> 01:05:45.480
hm hmm right. And if it's
a business purpose or business decision,

1085
01:05:45.559 --> 01:05:51.280
I'm blessed in other places, I
don't need to focus on this to make

1086
01:05:51.360 --> 01:05:56.679
money. Promoters that's their business.
A lot of times they're in the life

1087
01:05:56.719 --> 01:05:58.920
of I'm a promoter, and this
is how I make my money, so

1088
01:05:59.119 --> 01:06:01.599
every aspect of looking at how to
cut costs and do things, and in

1089
01:06:01.760 --> 01:06:06.239
this market, I just don't feel
we have enough income to sustain a level

1090
01:06:06.320 --> 01:06:10.880
quality that I feel that I want. That's a good point. I will

1091
01:06:11.000 --> 01:06:15.000
lose money almost every year because I'm
gonna spend more on the right stuff and

1092
01:06:15.079 --> 01:06:18.559
I'm not going to get the money
back. Influx how I feel like if

1093
01:06:18.559 --> 01:06:23.039
I'm in any other major market,
I'm killing it. I'm not without a

1094
01:06:23.079 --> 01:06:27.639
doubt, but you know, every
market is different. I'm not into country

1095
01:06:27.719 --> 01:06:30.519
music. We were gonna do a
country thing before COVID happened. We were

1096
01:06:30.519 --> 01:06:31.960
gonna do We had it with the
city confirmed. Now I mean Boots in

1097
01:06:32.000 --> 01:06:34.559
the Park. Shout out to them. They're doing a fantastic job. They're

1098
01:06:34.599 --> 01:06:38.320
doing great. They like country.
I don't front like. I listen to

1099
01:06:38.400 --> 01:06:42.519
country, never have not that I
don't like it. That's just never been

1100
01:06:42.559 --> 01:06:45.159
my thing. I was gonna do
deals to do it Mexican shows, you

1101
01:06:45.199 --> 01:06:48.000
know, with people. That's not
my thing. I'm not gonna sit here

1102
01:06:48.079 --> 01:06:51.599
and just do something for the fact
that just making money and I'm not into

1103
01:06:51.639 --> 01:06:55.199
it. I got too much things
in life I could be doing that this

1104
01:06:55.320 --> 01:06:58.400
is like a passion project. For
everything I do is a passion project if

1105
01:06:58.440 --> 01:07:00.639
you really break it down, Like
everything I've ever done has been a passion

1106
01:07:00.679 --> 01:07:02.440
project, whether you made money or
not, you know, And I always

1107
01:07:02.440 --> 01:07:05.199
figure out how to make money.
That's just the knack of me being who

1108
01:07:05.280 --> 01:07:09.519
I am. I know how to
make money, and that's why people gravitate

1109
01:07:09.519 --> 01:07:12.199
towards me. They want me to
do things for them, But I do

1110
01:07:12.280 --> 01:07:14.920
it because of the passion. Like
the money comes if you do things the

1111
01:07:15.000 --> 01:07:17.960
right way. So for me,
I wasn't gonna just start selling myself out

1112
01:07:18.000 --> 01:07:23.159
to do things just to do events. You're almost like protecting your peace at

1113
01:07:23.159 --> 01:07:25.280
the end of the days, I
gotta go to sleep, you know,

1114
01:07:25.719 --> 01:07:29.920
peacefully. I've never been someone that
said anybody dirty ever. And if I

1115
01:07:30.159 --> 01:07:31.440
did a deal with somebody, it
is exactly what I tell them, that's

1116
01:07:31.519 --> 01:07:34.440
the deal. I've never tried to
like hustle and get over on people.

1117
01:07:34.719 --> 01:07:39.480
That's just not my thing because in
life of relationships or everything, like when

1118
01:07:39.480 --> 01:07:42.199
people ask me like how do you
make it? It's my relationships my never

1119
01:07:42.519 --> 01:07:45.440
I'm never the little kid. Every
relationship I've developed I still have till this

1120
01:07:45.599 --> 01:07:48.360
day. Because that's the most important
thing we have at the end of the

1121
01:07:48.440 --> 01:07:51.800
day, is the people around us
and the relationships we make. People don't

1122
01:07:51.800 --> 01:07:56.960
really really really understand that. They
think money is the is everything, and

1123
01:07:57.119 --> 01:08:00.800
that's where they fall. Man,
let's just kind of go over twenty nineteen.

1124
01:08:01.000 --> 01:08:04.400
That was the g easy one,
right, the Grizzly Fest and then

1125
01:08:04.440 --> 01:08:11.360
COVID and then you know, I
a real fun question when we say this

1126
01:08:11.679 --> 01:08:14.960
was a festival for the town.
It was legit how it looked. You

1127
01:08:15.119 --> 01:08:19.039
had the big photo ops with the
big Grizzly Where are those things at?

1128
01:08:19.119 --> 01:08:23.680
Like I got to wear houseouse,
stolen everything. I still got it.

1129
01:08:23.760 --> 01:08:26.680
I mean, one day I may
do something because I want to do it,

1130
01:08:26.720 --> 01:08:29.720
because it's something I'm passionate about and
I want to do it, you

1131
01:08:29.800 --> 01:08:33.600
know, but it's not right now. I feel like COVID really hindered music

1132
01:08:33.680 --> 01:08:39.239
and chain. Did you have something
bubbling up before COVID, Like were you

1133
01:08:39.399 --> 01:08:43.000
working on Grizzly Fast And I always
having meetings with the city at that time.

1134
01:08:43.119 --> 01:08:45.600
Okay, so I wanted a tenure
deal and they kept saying no,

1135
01:08:45.680 --> 01:08:48.039
I'm for eighteen. They gave me
all that flak in eighteen then in nineteen

1136
01:08:48.079 --> 01:08:53.960
I did it and then like,
uh, I remember I had an email

1137
01:08:54.119 --> 01:08:58.760
out to the city manager, who
has since been far gone, and she

1138
01:08:58.880 --> 01:09:00.560
was supposed to send my proposal to
the mayor because I was like, you

1139
01:09:00.600 --> 01:09:03.159
want to be partners with me?
You want to tell me how many cops

1140
01:09:03.199 --> 01:09:06.560
you really want to be in the
business make money with me because they're the

1141
01:09:06.640 --> 01:09:11.279
ones making the money. I want
a tenure deal. Let's do business,

1142
01:09:11.319 --> 01:09:14.159
because that's how people do it.
They just did a deal with Boots in

1143
01:09:14.199 --> 01:09:17.000
the Park long term. Why are
they doing with them? And I'm over

1144
01:09:17.079 --> 01:09:21.399
here breaking ground and following everything that's
being done if you really want to get

1145
01:09:21.439 --> 01:09:26.880
to that point, and they they
she didn't even send it to the mayor.

1146
01:09:27.239 --> 01:09:30.159
When we announced we weren't doing it, mayor called me literally that on

1147
01:09:30.279 --> 01:09:32.479
the dot. He was like,
why aren't we doing this? What happened?

1148
01:09:32.479 --> 01:09:35.199
I said, you should talk to
your city manager? Wow? Wow,

1149
01:09:35.399 --> 01:09:38.840
I said, contract's been there for
three months. You were in Hawaii.

1150
01:09:38.880 --> 01:09:40.960
They were going to send it to
you. They came back and I

1151
01:09:41.039 --> 01:09:43.279
didn't fight, like what are you
talking to I'm not like, you don't

1152
01:09:43.279 --> 01:09:45.800
want to do it? All good? I don't need you. You need

1153
01:09:45.880 --> 01:09:49.119
me. It's my mentality if I'm
going to be putting in the work and

1154
01:09:49.199 --> 01:09:53.960
doing these things. So that's just
how I am. I'm not going to

1155
01:09:54.000 --> 01:09:56.680
I'm not going to chase anybody anything. That's something just there. And I

1156
01:09:56.760 --> 01:10:00.119
always talk about like, man,
I'm Mark Grizzly. Yeah, those are

1157
01:10:00.199 --> 01:10:03.520
some good times. So I get
asked about that every single time. I'm

1158
01:10:03.520 --> 01:10:08.399
sure it's old. It is what
it is. But I tell them,

1159
01:10:08.479 --> 01:10:11.840
you guys got Boots in the Park, it's doing amazing. Go to that

1160
01:10:11.920 --> 01:10:14.600
event. If you like country,
you got Santi on downtown, you got

1161
01:10:14.640 --> 01:10:17.319
tequila fests are doing down. People
are doing events, they're doing their stuff.

1162
01:10:17.319 --> 01:10:21.000
They're not my like Boots in the
Park is high level country. Look

1163
01:10:21.000 --> 01:10:24.560
at what they're doing. They're doing
phenomenal. They're booking really big acts.

1164
01:10:25.079 --> 01:10:28.880
Santi and on the Latin side,
he's booking some pretty big acts like he's

1165
01:10:29.319 --> 01:10:31.520
they're not they're not b or Sea
level. The hip hop stuff we do

1166
01:10:31.600 --> 01:10:35.600
here is still lacks a little bit. There's no like high level hip hop

1167
01:10:35.680 --> 01:10:40.520
stuff. But it's very hard.
You have to have really good relationships to

1168
01:10:40.600 --> 01:10:45.279
get the artists you want in the
pop in the world right and I think

1169
01:10:45.319 --> 01:10:47.359
the people Boots and Park have great
relationships with their country artists, so they're

1170
01:10:47.399 --> 01:10:50.439
able to get access to them.
Same thing with Santian and the guys in

1171
01:10:50.479 --> 01:10:56.119
the Latin world. So, but
there's a lot of events happening. It's

1172
01:10:56.199 --> 01:10:59.039
not like there's a lack of events. It's not like because I stopped Grizzly

1173
01:10:59.119 --> 01:11:00.920
Fest. No, but he's doing
an event. There's people that took advantage

1174
01:11:00.960 --> 01:11:04.560
of it. Like I told this
story to Sam from FTK when he went

1175
01:11:04.640 --> 01:11:08.760
to open the Fresone store. I
walked in with them. We're looking at

1176
01:11:08.760 --> 01:11:11.600
the spot the very first day,
and I said, just so you know,

1177
01:11:11.800 --> 01:11:15.279
right when you open the spot games
Exposed, everyone's gonna come copy,

1178
01:11:15.399 --> 01:11:18.239
manipulate, They're gonna do what you
want to do, so you better bring

1179
01:11:18.279 --> 01:11:23.399
your a game. When I did
Grizzly Fest, Games Exposed, right,

1180
01:11:23.520 --> 01:11:25.960
people are gonna see what you're doing
and they want to do exactly what you're

1181
01:11:25.960 --> 01:11:29.199
doing, how you're doing it,
and so forth. That's the nature of

1182
01:11:29.279 --> 01:11:31.800
business. It's okay. So for
me, I take it as a form

1183
01:11:31.880 --> 01:11:36.279
of like like I feel like it's
a form of respect where people are trying

1184
01:11:36.319 --> 01:11:39.640
to do these events and take them
because they feel like there's a sense that

1185
01:11:39.680 --> 01:11:43.319
could happen, and I'm happy about
that. I just for me what I

1186
01:11:43.399 --> 01:11:45.399
want to do, I just it
has to be done the right way,

1187
01:11:45.000 --> 01:11:48.039
you know what I mean. So
I mean, I love it. I

1188
01:11:48.079 --> 01:11:51.920
appreciate all the support everyone's given from
you guys, especially B ninety five has

1189
01:11:53.039 --> 01:11:58.039
always been, you know, from
Diego, always been a big support of

1190
01:11:58.439 --> 01:12:02.720
mine from day one. And it
wasn't even like it was just the core

1191
01:12:02.840 --> 01:12:06.359
people. I was always really cool
with, you know, the PD and

1192
01:12:06.399 --> 01:12:10.039
stuff. Was the PD. When
I wanted Diego's record, I say,

1193
01:12:10.119 --> 01:12:13.319
no, was I pissed? Yeah, but it is what it is.

1194
01:12:13.439 --> 01:12:15.159
I know there's a rhyme and reason
to why they're not moving in a direction

1195
01:12:15.319 --> 01:12:19.000
that I feel is right. But
who might have say they did the right

1196
01:12:19.039 --> 01:12:23.880
or wrong choices? Then I just
got to keep pushing forward. And right

1197
01:12:23.920 --> 01:12:26.520
now in life, I'm happy I'm
helping friends on state basketball. Right now,

1198
01:12:26.560 --> 01:12:28.640
that's all. Yeah, let's real
quick, just get to that.

1199
01:12:29.680 --> 01:12:31.000
You know, earlier in the when
I started the episode, I said,

1200
01:12:31.039 --> 01:12:33.720
you disappeared from the face of the
earth. Of course I was just joking,

1201
01:12:33.800 --> 01:12:38.560
but what are you doing now?
So, because I grew up playing

1202
01:12:38.560 --> 01:12:41.159
basketball. Right I'm in I'm in
healthcare. That's my main business. I

1203
01:12:41.239 --> 01:12:44.439
work with people with disabilities. I
have a company called Amvi Corporation. Started

1204
01:12:44.439 --> 01:12:49.319
that in two thousand and six.
Actually my brother started that. My parents,

1205
01:12:49.640 --> 01:12:54.199
my brother, myself, we slowly
grew that and as we're growing that,

1206
01:12:54.600 --> 01:12:58.239
I had to go full board with
that because that company just started taking

1207
01:12:58.279 --> 01:13:00.039
off, and my brother has done
an amazing job. If you want to

1208
01:13:00.079 --> 01:13:03.199
see about people who work hard,
my brother's the definition of that. Like

1209
01:13:03.399 --> 01:13:05.880
I've never met anybody that works as
hard as him and my mom, to

1210
01:13:05.960 --> 01:13:11.479
be honest. So I was like, I love doing my stuff, it's

1211
01:13:11.560 --> 01:13:14.840
great, but there's so much more
stuff I could do business wise. I

1212
01:13:14.880 --> 01:13:16.520
can make way more money to take
care of the stuff I really want to

1213
01:13:16.560 --> 01:13:19.359
do in the future as they get
older. So I had to make that

1214
01:13:19.479 --> 01:13:23.680
decision. I was like, I
love music, but I don't like babysitting

1215
01:13:23.800 --> 01:13:26.640
artists. I don't like having to
do all the bs behind the scenes that

1216
01:13:26.720 --> 01:13:31.279
are just it's not fun. So
I'm very happy in what I do every

1217
01:13:31.319 --> 01:13:34.800
day. I feel blessed every day
to be able to go work with the

1218
01:13:34.840 --> 01:13:38.319
population I get to work with,
and my staff and my team. I

1219
01:13:38.359 --> 01:13:43.880
think it's the most humbling and most
rewarding thing I've ever done. So I

1220
01:13:44.000 --> 01:13:46.800
love what I'm doing. So I'm
doing that. So back in November,

1221
01:13:46.840 --> 01:13:51.319
December's last year, I get a
call and basically, to make a long

1222
01:13:51.359 --> 01:13:56.039
story short, my high school coach
was Van Swaalbert, and when I was

1223
01:13:56.119 --> 01:13:59.279
a kid, he was my coach
and my brother's coach, and I lived

1224
01:13:59.319 --> 01:14:01.600
in that basketball and he was to
me the most terrifying man, but like

1225
01:14:02.000 --> 01:14:05.159
the God, like the great and
I don't see God, but the greatest

1226
01:14:05.479 --> 01:14:09.079
coach there was the hardest coach to
worked for. I mean I used to

1227
01:14:09.119 --> 01:14:13.560
go to sleep in nightmares like hating
help. Like he was that hard.

1228
01:14:13.600 --> 01:14:16.520
But he also he taught a lot
of lessons like adversity and pushing through the

1229
01:14:16.520 --> 01:14:19.640
stuff that I've had to go through
my life. A lot of it was

1230
01:14:19.720 --> 01:14:24.920
through him and my parents, but
like going through those things. So I

1231
01:14:25.000 --> 01:14:29.159
went to a game. I took
my nephew who's five and he loves basketball.

1232
01:14:29.199 --> 01:14:32.119
My brother's got him playing basketball and
loves it, and so we went

1233
01:14:32.199 --> 01:14:34.920
to a game. And not that
I didn't think Hutt was a good guy,

1234
01:14:35.119 --> 01:14:38.520
because I helped him out last year
with some NIO to try to get

1235
01:14:38.760 --> 01:14:45.479
some of the team some money.
I just didn't feel like he had what

1236
01:14:45.600 --> 01:14:48.319
we needed right to really make this
program turn around. I thought he was

1237
01:14:48.399 --> 01:14:50.760
just going through the motions, which
he was already on his way out.

1238
01:14:50.800 --> 01:14:54.640
He probably knew it. You're talking
about the culture right last year. He's

1239
01:14:54.680 --> 01:14:57.279
a great guy. I just didn't
feel like the energy was there. So

1240
01:14:59.359 --> 01:15:02.520
I remember my brother was taking my
nephew to little hoopsters. He's talking to

1241
01:15:02.600 --> 01:15:04.800
I was like, let's see Van
would want to take this Frial State job

1242
01:15:04.840 --> 01:15:06.920
if it opened up, Because it's
gonna open up. The contract was up.

1243
01:15:08.640 --> 01:15:10.760
I was coming up and he at
first he was like no, And

1244
01:15:10.800 --> 01:15:12.479
I'm like, what if I had
the contract in front of you and you

1245
01:15:12.520 --> 01:15:15.159
could take the job type of the
concept, and he's like, well,

1246
01:15:15.199 --> 01:15:18.800
that's a different story. So we
basically formulated a plan try to help him

1247
01:15:19.039 --> 01:15:21.359
organize, like a good marketing plan
to get him to be the job.

1248
01:15:21.399 --> 01:15:25.680
Because I feel like there's anybody that
could turn this program around in this community.

1249
01:15:25.720 --> 01:15:29.159
It's him hardest working guy you're going
to see that's a coach, the

1250
01:15:29.239 --> 01:15:31.119
smartest guy you're gonna see as a
coach, the community loves him, he

1251
01:15:31.239 --> 01:15:33.640
knows people. He gets out there
and makes it happen. A lot of

1252
01:15:33.720 --> 01:15:38.920
what Like we said, there's no
job, you every job. He's like

1253
01:15:39.000 --> 01:15:41.600
that. My mom is like that. There's few people in this in this

1254
01:15:41.720 --> 01:15:44.119
life that I've come across there are
like you just figured out to make it

1255
01:15:44.159 --> 01:15:47.800
happen. Right. He was that
type of a guy. So we put

1256
01:15:47.840 --> 01:15:50.760
a plan together. He ends up
getting the job. It was super stressful

1257
01:15:50.800 --> 01:15:55.359
period because we're trying to keep things
like on the low, be professional about

1258
01:15:55.359 --> 01:15:58.920
how we're organizing a team, strategizing
how we're going to fundraise, how we're

1259
01:15:58.920 --> 01:16:00.960
going to do this, and and
he was bought in. He was like

1260
01:16:01.039 --> 01:16:03.800
because he knows in the Dave College
basketball. Now you have to have a

1261
01:16:03.840 --> 01:16:09.720
business component. There's an I l
you're paying different, right, This isn't

1262
01:16:09.840 --> 01:16:12.960
just I'm a coach. I recruit, they come and it's free. So

1263
01:16:14.279 --> 01:16:15.399
I'm like, vance, it's a
different game. We gotta get it.

1264
01:16:15.439 --> 01:16:17.640
We gotta get a war chest out
there. We got to meet people.

1265
01:16:17.800 --> 01:16:20.279
I got to introduce you to people. We gotta shake hands, kiss babies,

1266
01:16:20.319 --> 01:16:23.399
do the whole nine. And we
got to figure this out. Because

1267
01:16:23.439 --> 01:16:26.560
if there's anybody that can do it, it's you. And so he's like,

1268
01:16:26.680 --> 01:16:28.479
whatever you need me to do,
I'm doing. Like he's like,

1269
01:16:28.520 --> 01:16:31.119
Aaron, just make it happen.
It's almost full circle. So what you're

1270
01:16:31.239 --> 01:16:34.680
doing with the artist now, you're
doing in in a sense, yes,

1271
01:16:34.720 --> 01:16:38.800
But I don't work for the school. I'm just this is a passion thing.

1272
01:16:38.840 --> 01:16:41.840
I don't make it. I donated
money to this pro to nil again

1273
01:16:41.920 --> 01:16:45.119
this year. I'm spending a lot
of time and effort energy into it because

1274
01:16:45.159 --> 01:16:47.840
it's a passion thing for me.
I really want to see Fresle State win.

1275
01:16:48.439 --> 01:16:51.039
I went to Fresno State. I
dropped out to go work for Kanye

1276
01:16:51.119 --> 01:16:57.039
West, but that was way back
when. But you know, Fresno State

1277
01:16:57.199 --> 01:17:00.239
is our community. Right when Fresle
State football basketball do well, this community,

1278
01:17:00.319 --> 01:17:04.560
this community does much better. I
feel like so with measure he did

1279
01:17:04.600 --> 01:17:09.720
it not passing. It was like, how are we going to raise money?

1280
01:17:09.760 --> 01:17:11.680
How are we going to get out
there and compete? Like, how

1281
01:17:11.720 --> 01:17:14.239
are we going to get out there
and really make this not be like San

1282
01:17:14.319 --> 01:17:19.039
Bernardino University College or Bakersfield College or
Santasaus State where we're just the college with

1283
01:17:19.199 --> 01:17:26.800
like really low level athletics, this
community will really crumble. It's essentially our

1284
01:17:26.840 --> 01:17:30.560
pro sports it is our pro sports
team. And athletics makes universities money.

1285
01:17:30.880 --> 01:17:33.600
If you run it like a business, it makes you money, right,

1286
01:17:34.279 --> 01:17:39.279
And no one's ran it like a
business. Nobody's operating this thing like a

1287
01:17:39.359 --> 01:17:41.399
business, like you have to make
money. And what does that take.

1288
01:17:41.479 --> 01:17:45.319
It takes a lot of community like
involvement. It takes a lot of risk

1289
01:17:45.359 --> 01:17:47.680
from the community, a lot of
buying from the community. And whatever happened

1290
01:17:47.760 --> 01:17:50.479
during the tark era when he left, because there's a lot of donors that

1291
01:17:50.520 --> 01:17:54.760
helped make that thing happen. They
were pissed that president. However they got

1292
01:17:54.840 --> 01:17:58.840
rid of him. I'm learning the
dark stories of the university of the last

1293
01:17:58.840 --> 01:18:01.680
twenty years, and it's not not
good stories, right, But we got

1294
01:18:01.800 --> 01:18:04.760
to move past that. We gotta
we have to get back. And the

1295
01:18:05.399 --> 01:18:12.079
president, now, doctor heim Andez
Santaval is great. I mean, he's

1296
01:18:12.520 --> 01:18:15.279
he's like, we need to get
back. So he's kind of opened up

1297
01:18:15.319 --> 01:18:19.199
the playbook for vance and the Tedford
whoever football to kind of get out there

1298
01:18:19.279 --> 01:18:23.640
again and like, let's bring the
let's bring these people back and let's let

1299
01:18:23.680 --> 01:18:28.239
them feel at home again. So
I've been out raising money for nil,

1300
01:18:28.319 --> 01:18:31.560
for the coach, helping them as
much as I can. Marcus McMahon at

1301
01:18:31.600 --> 01:18:35.960
Bulldog Bred, he's the one that
runs that, working with him and just

1302
01:18:36.079 --> 01:18:39.600
kind of being, if you want
to call it, the GM side of

1303
01:18:39.720 --> 01:18:45.039
Vance's program, my brother and I
and a couple other individuals. So I'm

1304
01:18:45.199 --> 01:18:48.079
really trying to help him have a
good year one to get people to believe

1305
01:18:48.199 --> 01:18:50.920
again in basketball, so we can
get people back to save mar Center,

1306
01:18:51.079 --> 01:18:54.760
get people, you know, excited
again. You know, I got Sam

1307
01:18:54.840 --> 01:18:58.039
on board with something. I got
the whole thing. I can make calls

1308
01:18:58.119 --> 01:19:00.640
left right here and there, and
I can get the puzzle put together.

1309
01:19:00.079 --> 01:19:04.199
So working with athletics and working with
them, I'm really trying to make basketball

1310
01:19:04.560 --> 01:19:06.680
legitimate again. And the only way
you can do it, though is you

1311
01:19:06.720 --> 01:19:10.640
got to have players on the floor
that can play. So we got to

1312
01:19:10.680 --> 01:19:12.880
raise that money. Yeah, I
know, iHeart is a big you know,

1313
01:19:12.960 --> 01:19:15.239
we're partners with Presdent State. I've
got to DJ a couple of basketball

1314
01:19:15.279 --> 01:19:17.880
games. You're gonna do it again, man, I'm dy here. We're

1315
01:19:17.960 --> 01:19:20.680
doing the midnight man, Let's do
it. We're gonna do a Red White

1316
01:19:20.760 --> 01:19:25.079
Dunk Contest three point. We're doing
all that. They got players, let's

1317
01:19:25.159 --> 01:19:29.520
do it. They got very good
players here right now. I'm shout out

1318
01:19:29.520 --> 01:19:31.479
to vance Man. He's he's been
recruiting and he's got John Wealthy, who

1319
01:19:31.520 --> 01:19:35.159
was Tark's assistant. He's back from
Kentucky. He was able to pull him,

1320
01:19:35.359 --> 01:19:39.680
which is huge. Like the number
one assistant in college is here at

1321
01:19:39.680 --> 01:19:43.800
Fresdent State, Ray Bearfield. I
mean, he's developed like four or five

1322
01:19:43.920 --> 01:19:47.439
NBA players. Evan Mobley from the
Indiana Pacers and Isaiah Mobley were his two

1323
01:19:47.520 --> 01:19:51.760
guys that he just coached up.
So he's got he's got the guys man.

1324
01:19:51.840 --> 01:19:55.560
I mean, I just think people
I hate to say this, but

1325
01:19:55.640 --> 01:19:58.560
whenever I put my energy into something, I hate telling people like trust me.

1326
01:20:00.000 --> 01:20:02.239
I've had to do it a lot
over and over and over and over

1327
01:20:02.279 --> 01:20:05.560
again. And that's kind of the
part of Fresent that obsessed me is people

1328
01:20:05.640 --> 01:20:10.720
here kind of want to act like
they know all the time, but they've

1329
01:20:10.840 --> 01:20:14.119
never done it. And my thing
is like how many times I got to

1330
01:20:14.199 --> 01:20:16.800
prove to you like I can do
this and show lead you the right path

1331
01:20:17.279 --> 01:20:21.119
until you know, just come on, just come on board, trust me.

1332
01:20:21.720 --> 01:20:25.279
Like, if you guys want to
want to, you know, feel

1333
01:20:25.359 --> 01:20:28.960
proud about being from Fresno. This
is another huge step. Like you said,

1334
01:20:29.000 --> 01:20:31.760
it's our pro team. That's huge. You know. I'm excited for

1335
01:20:31.840 --> 01:20:38.119
the next season. Appreciate you doing
the episode. Yeah yeah, and all

1336
01:20:38.159 --> 01:20:41.840
these things. We've never heard about
you before. So man, I can

1337
01:20:41.960 --> 01:20:45.560
go on for hours a lot of
stories, you know, but I want

1338
01:20:45.600 --> 01:20:46.880
to say shout out to all the
artists that I work with back in the

1339
01:20:47.000 --> 01:20:53.319
day, man Fashion on Planet Uh
and Diego Red and guys from the Basement,

1340
01:20:53.359 --> 01:20:55.760
Planet Asia, you name it.
There's there's a lot of legends.

1341
01:20:56.119 --> 01:20:59.760
Otis Reed is doing great things.
He's got the Grizzest City Boy movie that

1342
01:21:00.039 --> 01:21:02.720
he's putting out. Just people taking
chance and risk, you know, and

1343
01:21:03.399 --> 01:21:06.720
like I said, just figuring it
out and doing it is if anybody ever

1344
01:21:06.760 --> 01:21:10.520
takes anything from what I've done,
is just figure out to make it happen.

1345
01:21:10.600 --> 01:21:15.319
Bro. Like, there's there's too
much talent in our community for people

1346
01:21:15.439 --> 01:21:17.439
just to sit back and be afraid
to take that risk. Well said,

1347
01:21:18.159 --> 01:21:20.199
Until next time, this could get
me fire podcast