This could get Me Fire podcast? What Up on Gizzo? That is John
Magic, and we are back super excited about today's guest. He's been called
a marketing genius. He is well versed in the hip hop culture and also
he has a fingerprint on making Fresno fucking cool and a dope city to be
in. Ladies and gentlemen. Sam Hanson aka Sam from FDK, What Up?
Bro? Yeah, thanks for having me, guys. I mean,
I'm glad, like I've seen a lot of your previous guests, Dorian was
on here, a lot of like the homies, so I mean, I'm
glad you got them on. I'm glad that a lot of people got some
shine on here. So this is such a big episode, right just because
Sam made such a name for himself for the city. I mean just the
events that he's done, the stuff that he's done with like the Grizzlies,
the stuff that he's done even before that. It's just so much that this
guy's brought to the city recognition and I'm excited to get into it for sure.
So we like to start from the beginning because if I'm not mistaken,
you're not originally from Fresno, No I was not born and raised here.
I'm I'd like to say I was born and raised in the Bay but made
with Central Cali parts. All my parents are from Lamore, California, So
my mom and dad moved to Valeo, California. My dad was in the
Navy, and that's where I was born. But my family all here in
Central Cali. I had the cool aunt that lived in the tower. You
know. She was like my mom's younger sister. So I would come down
here every summer, and so a lot of my childhood was spent here.
Oh Fresno. I might give away my age a little bit, but the
first time I ever made out with the girl was nineteen ninety. It was
behind the pirate ship at Blackbeard's Oh wow, when the pirate ship was brand
new. Yeah. So, yeah, I have a lot of Fresne memories,
like in my you know, Fresno had a big part in like building
my character. But obviously I grew up in the Bay Area. I grew
up in Vale, California. Okay, what brought you down here? Officio
school? Fresno State. Okay, so you went to state? Yeah,
all right, I left without my receipt, but I did attend Fresno State
College dropout? Was that because, like you said, you had a childhood
here as well too in the city, and when it was time for college,
is that why? Yeah, I just it wasn't even a choice.
It was obvious thing that, like, I just had the valley in my
veins, and I just I knew I was going to end up here,
that this was where I wanted to sort of build my future. I knew
that there was opportunity here to sort of grow the things that I wanted to
to grow. I knew that when when eventually I was going to start screenprinting
T shirts and open a store. And at the time, the Bay Area
was just so oversaturated that this just looked like a an open, untapped market
maybe the market and uh, I felt that fresnol had such a great appreciation
for Bay Area music and just I mean to this day this day, Yeah,
I feel like Fresno does get more influence from the Bay than l A.
I've always felt that way, So that makes sense. But what was
the store sort of your your first big move out here. It was probably
the event like street rock event. Okay, so I ended up getting a
internship at a screen printing shop in Vicelia, and so I ended up moving
down to Vicelia working at their shop, and then I found out that you
could take Fresno State classes at COS. And at COS I met these cats
from Lamore that were throwing these b boy battles at the parks and it was
called street rock, and so I got involved with them. I started doing
their flyers, we started printing t shirts and stuff for the for the events.
And around the same time, I met Bobby DJ Bobby Noggle from Vicelia
and he was putting out mixtapes that were called for the kids. And back
then, you know, the Internet wasn't as you know, as dominant in
our lives as as as as it is now. And so we built this
website called Central Cali dot com, which became sort of like one of the
first, I guess platforms of social media. It was a message board where
people could go on there and post about different elements of hip hop. You
know. We had a section for lyricists, lounge and b boy wee boys
could uload their videos things like that. And then it was this was growing
the attendance of these street rock events. So they went from like us originally
just literally doing it at the park to us having to rent convention centers and
put up cash prizes for the different tournaments. So we'd have B boy Battles,
MC battles pre eight mile, yeah, whereas Freestyle Sea battles and yeah,
DJ battles, and we'ld have like you know, legal walls for graph
art and things like that. And we started growing the user base of this
message board and it ended up we had like ten thousand registered users on this
message board. That was around the time you really started seeing like, I
don't know, a producer from Bakersfield network working with a MC from Fresno and
you just would see this like sort of network of Central Cali really like kind
of developing it scene. Yeah yeah, yeah, she didn't really didn't.
There really wasn't a scene out here. It's sort of like people kind of
doing their own thing. There was, I mean, well, but it
was very like I remember going to this place called the Mushroom in Fresno and
schoo Yard was there, Asia and those dudes with their turbine were there,
and then you know there was the b boys like Climax and Charles and Eric
and all those guys in the graph Riders like the Gtail dudes and this and
all those dudes. So there was a scene here in Fresno, but it
wasn't as connected as with all the other cities. Go yeah, it's like,
you know, so street rock kind of brought by Celia Bridge the Gap.
Yeah, all to the same events. And so once we made that
connection, we opened up our store and Vicelia real quick, excuse me,
I think we got to put some context because you're you're known a lot for
the culture, especially hip hop hip hop culture. Before we continue with the
stories, where did that come from? Where did did this love knowledge of
hip hop culture come from? You know, moving here because you're known for
that, Yeah, what was the influence? I mean, I grew up
in Valeo, California, which is, you know, forty an inner city,
and I remember seeing you know, like the independent stuff obviously like the
you know, I mean I literally saw like I didn't actually see E forty
do it himself, but I saw his brother d shot literally selling like the
call Me on the under single, like his trunk, Like I watched that
happen, Like he gave me a poster out of his trunk, and so
I saw that. But to be to be honest, I wasn't as big
of a fan of like the local Valo stuff. I was really into more
of the boom bab you know, like I was. I was listening like
Pete Rock and Seal Smooth, you know, EPMD and yeah, like that
type of stuff in music. And I mean Valeo was before all of the
the rap music started coming. Valleo was also like a hotbed for funk music.
So we had like Confunction and slic Stone there, they're from Valoe.
So I always had an just sort of like funk music. And at an
early age, I started noticing like I was like, oh, hey that's
you know mc hammy. You can't touch this. I was like, oh
hey that's Rick James, super freak. Like I just took an interest in
the music. And you know, I think I watched Style Wars documentarying Style
Wars and I was like, oh, the graffiti and break dancing and rap
music, like it's all part of you know, at an early age,
I sort of realized it was all part of one culture and just always was
you know, I was just that kid just watching every episode of MTV raps.
Yeah yeah, yeah, Like I would read the source from cover to
cover, Like some of my friends would only read like articles about artists that
they were interested in, and I would be reading articles about like Law of
the dark Man and just random rappers just to be up on it, you
know. So yeah, I mean that was like my thing. Like I
just was really into the culture essentially. And then when I when I'm in
Valao, at least like that was the culture at least where I lived in
Valeo, like maybe out by like Venetia and Napa and like where there's more
like did you say, like suburban like they were like into Green Day and
whatever that, you know, that type stuff, Like I just wasn't.
I just never listened. I've never listened to rock, like I've listened to
country music. So come down here and stay with my grandparents at the ranch.
When I was back home, like it was nothing but like hip hop
and R and B that's all anyone listened to. So yeah, I mean
that's just so. Then when I came here, I noticed I go to
places like Jay and Sea House of Records over there on I think it was
on Poddole, and they it seemed like they knew more about Bay Area hip
hop than like people in the Bay like Presno just had this real deep appreciation
for Bay Area hip hop. And I was just so impressed by that.
Wow, just like Max Dre was big out here, that's crazy. Yeah,
And so that made me appreciate I guess bay Area hip hop more.
And Fresno actually made me appreciate bay Area hip hop, that's funny. So
when I came down here, I got more into you know, the the
mob music and yeah. Yeah, and then Hiphi you know, came in
around that early two thousands. Yeah, as I was here, Hyphie was
coming with me bring it, but followed me out. Yeah, So we
left off, and that's how you opened the store. The store that I
remember was the one on Sean Blackstone, but you had a store and Vicelia
before that. So the store was called for the Kids because that's what Bobby's
mixtapes were. Bobby's mixtapes were called for the Kids. Wow. So that's
where you got the name. And so when we first opened, it was
pretty much Bobby was in a record pool. He's in like the Fat Beats
and the abb record pool. So he was getting all these records and he
was basically just wanted a place to offload them and you know, like he
had access to get a lot of harder to find hip hop music back then,
you know, like your like atmosphere and your higher living legends and that
type of stuff. And so originally we were just selling mixtapes, vinyl art
supplies, you know, spray paint can and markers and things like that,
and then T shirts of the artists, like Hieroglyphics T shirts and that you
guys wouldn't make yourself. Where were you getting these? We were just getting
them from the artists would just give it, you know. And so I
wanted to get these planet Asia t shirts that this brand Lifted Research Group had
made, and I ended up meeting up with the guys who started the brand
LRG Lifted Research Group, and then one of my good homies from Danuba ended
up being the sales rep for them. So we sort of grew with LRG
into you know, a fast because at that point you were either like on
some real underground like backpacker type wearing some Camo cargo pants and a Raucous Records
hoodie, where you were like super you know, uh jiggy wearing a fake
Jacob's watch and a basketball jersey. Halfway on with that like those like those,
and then larg made it so like you had to choose one. They
just went straight. They were right down the middle. And then Kanye came
and he was just like the perfect poster child for LRG. Yeah. It
was like the where he would literally put freeway and to live quality on a
track, you know, like the So right around that time was whenever we
opened up our store and we just kind of grew into the brand with with
LERG. Lergy was a huge part of that, and then obviously Kanye was
kind of elevated that to a whole other level. I was wearing a lot
of LERG stuff because I had friends that were reps for it. Just give
me stuff. Yeah, this gave me more. I guess this is my
style. Now. I'm curious about opening a store at that time, like
how do where do you get the money? Like how do you open up
a store like a storefront. So the first store was really small. I
was in by Celio was on Central Street. It was right next to like
the Get and Go. I mean it was five hundred square feet and we
were pretty much just going to use it as a warehouse for the stuff that
we were selling online and I had my screen printing equipment in there. I
had a little one station screen printing equipment, and I would so I was
printing like Central Cali dot com t shirts. And then also something that happened
right when I moved here was the area coach changed from two nine. Yeah,
And I was at Bobby's house, Bobby's making his mixtapes, and there
was a single on Raucus that had Royce the five nine and roy says nickel
nine. And I was like, yo, scratch that back, and he
scratched it back, and I go, Nickel Nickel nine, Nickel nick.
He starts scratching Nickel Nickel nine. Oh snap, And so I immediately went
home, got on Adobe illustrator, made a T shirt designed with two Nickels
and a nine millimeter yeah printed classic iconic Nickel Nickel. When I was born
up, everyone had I mean, it's still the point where like I would
see people with it tattooed on him that don't know. And but I would
go to you know, I was going to Fresno State slanging those on that
pack. Yeah, you know, just like the rappers and Valleo used to.
I was, you know, SLEI but I was doing it with T
shirts and uh so we were selling those online. We're selling these and so
it was just a smaller store on Central Cali dot com. Yeah, it
was selling on Central caliy dot com. And we just we we couldn't wearhouse
all the product in our apartments, so we just got a cheap little space
some storage, yeah, like next to anymore. And then it got to
the point where we needed more space, so I took my screen printing equipment
out and we knocked down that wall where my screenprinting stuff was, and we
expanded the store and we would have open mics there all the time. We
would have like open linoleum. We'd roll out in thenoleum and duct tape it
down in the parking lot and we just have open circles for b boys.
And then we started throwing these events. Started off the pp it well,
we started off at the parks, like we would just go out to the
parks and just not even get a permit. We would just I would literally
get a screw driver and unscrew the light at the park, yeah, pulled
the cord out, and you know, we'd plug in right there and start
having these little we didn't even have a mic like dudes with battle on the
headphones. The headphones, plug the phone into the mic. Yeah, did
Gio, Did you ever get to see that? I've I never got to
see the Vicelia store. No I didn't either, No, I never got
to see it. We we had the Vicelia Store and then we heard about
it here in town. Were coming up here and promoting a lot. Yeah,
and we were buildings were connections with a lot of the guys here in
Fresno. It was important for me before we opened up the Fresno store for
me to like pay dues in Fresno first. So we had done some street
rock events here in Fresno years before we ever opened the store. We did
an event at the Orchid Hall. We did a free DJ battle at Holmes
Playground, like we we we brought street rock here. And then we were
super involved with urban combat at Fresno State with hack K and like Scratchy Mentals
and those dudes. Always really cool with the dudes from Schoolyard. Still to
this day, I'm boys with the you know guys some soul Control and Climax,
Uh. The GTL dudes like Nist and Work and all the raft dudes
from here. So we were we were tapped in with them, and when
we started doing the merchandise or Kanye, that was when we got the money
to open the Fresno store. Okay, so this is a great story.
Yeah. So so that's the next timeline before the Fresne store. Yeah,
okay, for there store, we we started doing Anye's merchandise before we get
to the Kanye story. The reason why I know this is such a great
story because I I was picking up tickets somewhere at the mall and you were
there and you just gave me the rundown and I was things I did not
know about about this Kanye story. So that's just my setup for you guys.
Here's the Kanye story. So I we had we had an Adidas Originals
account and there was this dude named Drew from Chicago that was buying a lot
of Adidas Original stuff from US, and a guy named Don Crawley aka Don
c who is Kanye's manager. He was buying a lot of Adidas Original stuff
from US. And then also, you know LRG was a huge brand at
the time. Was I'm sorry, well, it wasn't that huge, it
was it was gaining momentum. It was highly sought after and we were one
of the first people to carry it. So we helped plug LRG with Kanye
with LRG and then he wanted uh some T shirts designed with his the Chicago
Skyline logo on it. A lot of people think that I did that logo.
I did not do the Chicago Skyline logo. So it was that I
think it's said Kanye West, right, and then with the sky skyline yeah
behind it almost like cartoony right. Yeah. Yeah, that's sort of a
yeah, it's sort of a silhouette type cartoony silhouette. But he just sent
Bobby the the file and I had screen printing, so I started printing those
shirts for him. And then he said that he wanted a logo for the
College Dropout and he asked he actually asked me to do the the what is
it the Godfather flip? And I was like, man, like, if
you're gonna if this is gonna be like your logo, Like it shouldn't be
a flip of something that Yogo should be something like like gangster w EPMD or
something something that you recognize as at this time, are you talking are you
communicating with the manager? I'm talking to Kanye and management. Wow. Yeah,
ok, he was because he was still pretty you know, like uh,
he was on the rock, but he was more known as like a
producer. Yeah. This is just when he was doing beats mainly, right,
Yeah, yeah, Through the Wire had just came out, so I
brought Through the Wire when I came to do that. We were doing an
interview in two thousand and three just about like the street rock battles and the
b boy battles, and I actually get I don't know if you still have
it, but I gave you a T shirt, the Kanye West one that
was it was I gave you. Yeah, it's blue with orange riding on
it. It was one of my favorite shirt. Yeah. I gave him
a Kanye shirt and and it was one of the first ones because it still
had the rock They had the Rockefeller logo on it. Yes, grip now
man, like you know, I wish I would have it. So that's
the part where I interviewed you. It was for the Rock Battle. I
woul think I was here with F Plus Yeah, I think so, yeah,
JF plus talking Where is F plus now? These days? You know,
I think he's in like Mount Mount View or so I think he worked
at Google. Wow f plus was he was a doing great DJ? Yeah
man he plus wow. Okay, But so so yeah, we started.
We ended up creating the dropout bear for Kanye real quick, let me stop
you there. Why did they did they know? How did they know you
were gonna you're a graphic designer? I told him, Oh yeah, Well
Bobby was like, hey, like you know, we were talking to Dawn
and they wanted some samples of some T shirts. So originally he wanted that
he wanted the college drop out to be the Godfather logo with the hand the
popp it oh yeah yeah, and and I was like I shouldn't do that,
like but you know, Kanye, we haven't got someone else to do
it. And then he sent pictures of the mascot suit and we're like,
oh, dang, like you know, like polo, like we already talked
about like we you know, we'd had like a polo relationship, and so
we're like, oh, I'm gonna flip that like it's a I'm like a
mascot collegiate type logo. So then we did that and he asked how much
do you want for it? And we were like, man, for the
logo. Yeah, he's like, I got a look cool little budget from
the rock. It's not you know, not a lot, but like you
we'll break you off for doing this logo for us. And one of the
smartest things I think that we ever did. I mean, you know,
Bobby and I both are just like kind of looked at each other and we're
like, no, we're on speakerphone and we're like, nah, man,
it's good like you have it, but let us put an extra page in
your album cover that says for fan club information and merchandise. Log onto Kanye
West dot Com and they were like, well, we don't have a shopping
cart. This is two thousand and three, late two thousand and three.
Yeah. Back then, like the first time I moved here. Now I
was in high school, encrypted shopping carts were like a new thing. We
had just upgraded ours because we were carrying LRG and we had had so much
heavy traffic that it was worth it for us to pay the one hundred bucks
a month for you know, encrypted credit card process say shopping cart, and
we're like, well, we actually just got this software. Wow. So
they sent us the HTML code from Kanye West dot Com, which was on
the Rockefeller server right by def Jam and we took that code and we made
FTK online. And at this point we had changed from Central Cali dot Com
to FTK online just because it was more marketable when we were getting a lot
of customers from out of state and out of you know. Uh. But
if you went to Kanye West dot com and you clicked on store, it
actually took you to FTK online backs Kanye Wow. So that was but the
background still looked the same, so you know what I mean, Like like
no one knew but when you ordered a T shirt from Kanye West dot com,
it actually came from by Celia, California. So yes, we started,
you know, making a little bread off of that. Wait, so
again, let me reiterate. They asked you how much do you want for
this logo? And you were like, nothing, but just do this link.
Let us do this, and I mean it. You know, I
mean we weren't you know, I mean I was. I was eating Ramen
noodles and you know, I mean, I like, but we also weren't
hell a thirsty desprit by any means. We you know, we're making some
cool money off of lerg orders and whatnot. But all of our money was
going back into the store. I still worked at a day job. I
worked at a screen printing and sign shop in the morning, and then Bobby
would did inventory control for this vitamin distribution place and out in Goshen, and
then we would you know, hip hop doesn't start before noon, so we
would come in open open up the shop at noon we worked. We would
get up and you know, start our jobs at seven and then come in
and open up the store. And I wasn't expecting to make a lot off
of the Kanye merch deal, to be honest. But you know, normally,
like if we got a big larg order and we sold out of stuff,
we'd have like, you know, fifty sixty orders, and we thought
we were balling. Then you know, we're going to Sizzler. But when
the first day the the college dropout dropped, we came in and there was
like three hundred orders, oh snap, And then the next day four hundred
and you know, and just kept getting more. So Bobby ended up going
on tour with them and doing the Truth Tour with Usher the College Dropout Tour,
end up going doing going to Japan and doing the tour there. Ended
up doing the European tour and so we did two four solid tours with him,
and then we started to do the the merch for Late Registration second album,
and then I mean it was just it was just he had kind of
outgrown yeah, yeah, yeah, And so they negotiated a deal with a
larger merchandise company. But by that point we had made enough money to open
up the Fresno store. But then you guys had brought Kanye to FTK,
right, Yeah, I remember that came for the grand opening at the Fresno
store, so real quick. Before that was FDK, wasn't it gear Hog?
Gear Hog was across the parking lot. Okay, that was another hip
hop clothing store. Yeah, that was Motts at that spot. Yeah,
and it was it was more kind of what we were talking about. It
was more like geared toys like the the Sean John. Yeah, it was
like the stuff that I was wearing basically stuff, and we were more like
and all that ship. Yeah yeah, and we were more like like l
R. I guess we were a little more like sneakerhead like or and also
a little more graffiti Bee Boy, more of like they had a hip hop
hip hop rather than like the rap. I mean that's when we but then
the sneaker head element like brought in all the ball players yeah too. And
then around that same time was whenever like the Hyphie blowing up. I remember
when Kanye came to the Red Room for when he came for the grand opening.
I remember him asking, He's like, heyo, fres No, like,
what's this that they're telling me about it here that you guys what you
guys go dumb, what's that all about? And President was just going,
man, yeah, yeah, you know. And so right around that same
time, all of the Bay Area dudes started coming down and coming to the
store. So I started making like, sure it's this, said Hella hiphee.
Yeah. I started like leaning into that because I mean because I am
from Balleo. You know, I wasn't like a high dude per se,
but I mean, you know, I'm from there, so I know like
a lot of those guys, you know, I know, I've had good
relationships with the jack I had good relations I have a good relationship with Numb
A lot of these like you know dudes who were part of like the fab
is like a good home of mine. Gary Archer, so all those dudes
who are really you know, part of that movement I was really tapped in
with. So we were selling all of those CDs too, so like the
you know, the all the mac Ra CDs and yeah, and then we
had you know mac Ray, you know, all the mac Ray merch and
things like that. Also, we didn't really carry the crazy like airbrushed yellow
bus tees and stuff like that sort, but we still had enough of that
stuff to kind of you know, FTK was like that. That was the
style that during that time for me, just those hip hop shirts and I
would buy some, like I've I bought a couple of sneakers there, you
know, not a lot because I wasn't making too much money, but I
frequented that store just because, man, it was like a cool as it
was a cool store. Spots of being right across the streets literally yeah station.
Yeah, yeah, man, the Kanye thing. I think I was
out of town. Did you tell me you wanted to I didn't get to
go, but I remember when it was happening. Yeah, I remember when
it was happening because I think we were doing a promotion with that. I
think we were doing like tickets or something to get you there. So I
remember that time that was when Present one censored. Yeah, during that was
that was a crazy era. We sold all the President One censored DVD like
all that, you know, and so yeah, we had a some uh
kid got beat up at the Kanye in store and we ended up getting sued.
It was a security guard that beat him up, right, I remember
that it was on was on film. Yeah, we had some issues with
the Present one censored DVD and just a lot we had at a series of
you know, just headaches. And then the recession came in two thousand and
eight, we opened up we opened up FTK by Sellya two thousand and one,
we opened up FTK Fresno two thousand and five. We closed FTK by
Selja in two thousand and seven, and then in two thousand and eight,
Bobby, he was just over it. He wanted me to buy him out.
In two thousand and eight was whenever the you know, the big the
great recession it came in. And it went from us having kids sleeping in
front of our store to pay two hundred dollars for a pair of shoes to
we couldn't sell a two hundred dollars pair of shoes for sixty percent off because
all the kids wanted to wear Vans. It was that era. That was
that era or the lower price point, and and Nike's kind of like a
cartel man like there, I mean, they owned Converts. I couldn't get
a Van's account because Vans was like a core skate account and I wasn't gonna
front like we were like we were skaters, Like I respect skaters too much
to try to, you know, act like there's something you're not. Yeah,
but I knew that Nike owned Van or I'm sorry, Nike owned Converse
and people were really rocking Chucks tough back then too, around the same time
as Vans, if you remember. And so I asked Nike or our Nike
rep. I was like, hey, can we get a Chuck's account?
Like, nah, man, you're gonna push these two hundred dollars force ones.
I deal with the cartel. Yeah yeah eventually, Uh so, I
I I had the idea to bring in vintage year. I had a really
big vintage Polo collection, just vintage streetwear in general. I've always just archived
everything, and so I brought that into the store and I maybe like a
quarter of our two thousand square feet. When Sean Blackstone was vintage streetwear and
it was just too early. Fresno just didn't get it, which is funny
because it's popping now. Yeah. Yeah, the vintage shirts and stuff is
like there's stores everywhere now shirt and it's just and but Fresno, I mean
they literally, like I literally got mocked for it, like when people were
like this stuff is used, Yeah, I was like, it's been washed,
It's been But I ended up having to buy Bobby out to not close
the store. So I kept it open from Water Mountain two thousand and eight,
kept it open to twenty eleven. And in two thousand and eleven or
maybe like late twenty ten, fash On was in the shop and he used
to just kick it in there, and I had in the venture section,
I had a bootleg Bart Simpson T shirt, you know with the black Bart
Simpson went from the late nineties, and he goes, oh, man,
that's crazy. I'm I just wrote a song called black Bart Simpson. I
talked about me being a skater, and I was like, oh, snap,
I should we should do a Bart Simpson character of you. And back
then his whole thing was like Grizzly Gang, Grizzly City, and I'd already
done like those logos for him by flipping the presne Grizzly stuff. So I
did this Bart Simpson T shirt design and it was, you know, a
Bart Simpson character wearing fresnel Grizzly stuff, the purple stuff, and at that
time he had just got this this strain of weed came out called griz City
cush, and so he asked me to put a joint in his character's hand
and it said Grizzly sitter or something like, you know, g's up.
And someone wore one of those shirts to a Grizzlies game and I ended up
getting a cease and desist from the present base, and so I went down
there and I was like, Hey, what if I just take the joint
out of his character's hand, we just have him holding the skateboard with the
g And then I was like, and then we make the skateboards and we
sell them here in your store. And if we do that, then you
guys let me design like a new era hat. And we saw that Sean
Blackstone at my spot and they were with it. Wow, and kids weren't
able to pay two hundred bucks for a pair of Air Force ones right then.
But they were down to pay fifty bucks for a new Era hat.
And so we sold one hundred and forty four Grizzly's hats like in two hours.
Wow, finned up for him and the this was new to the Grizzlies
back then. Wow, how did you do that? And they're like,
you want to come be a consultant for us? What a great transition.
So they were like, they wanted me to be a merchandise consultant at the
grizz And I was like, man, a check would be real nice right
now. I mean, at that point, I had more kids coming in
trying to get me to sell their streetwear brands and their CDs. Then I
had customers. In the days where I had literally had more kids coming in
wanting me to take their stuff on consignment or buy their stuff. Then we
had customers, and so I was like, yeah, I started working for
the griz and I tried to keep the store open and work for the Grizzlies
part time. I ended up being offered a job as a graphic designer there,
and then I had what I call the Fulton Mall epiphany. I was
walking on Fulton Mall, just like during my little lunch break, and I
was like around. I was like, man, this is like this is
a city, Like this is an inner city. Like this is a bigger
city than I grew up in. It was like five times the size of
a Leo. But it doesn't feel like a city because the actual core of
the city has been abandoned. And I was like, yeah, so thus
far everything that I had worked for the whole like FTK, you know,
years of my life. I said to myself, the brand that I built
is counterproductive to itself because hypothetically, if just you know, your standard issue
white boy from Clovis like had never come into FDK, he just probably buy
a lifted truck and spend his weekends at the coast doing what white boys from
Clovis do. But because he hypothetically came into FDK, now he's a sneaker
collecting and he's listening to a different type of music, and he wants this
inner city culture that at the time was not attainable in Presno. He'd had
to go to another city. He'd have to move to Santa Cruz or the
Bay or Portland or wherever. But there wasn't a real inner city culture in
Fresno at the time, and so I was like, man, I have
to dedicate myself to revitalizing downtown and helping re establish the energy in the nucleus
of the atom and letting things radiate outward from the core. And I was
like, man, well, how do we get things cracking down here?
I guess the Grizzlies. Being the biggest anchor tenant of downtown. I just
was like, all right, I gotta really make the Grizzlies crack. So
the first thing I thought of was taco truck. Well, yeah, it's
like I thought back to when I was in Fresno State and I remember being
in class and just sort of identifying like, man, that's some Presno Like
we can't we cuss on here here? Yeah? Okay? Well, I
was like, Yo, that's some Presno shit. Yeh like itay see stuff,
and be like dam that's some Presno shit right there. One of those
things was in Valayl we had taco trucks, but they were looked at as
like dirty, Like well, I'd come down here and stee with my aunt
and she would take me to a taco truck over on Belmont, and you
know, everybody there was all walks of life. We're out of a taco
truck. But you go to a taco truck and valail in the eighties and
people were like, oh no, that's dirty. So they would call them
roach coaches. Yeah, and you know they're the they're the rage now and
they have been for a minute. Yeah in the Bay, but you're lying
if you say that you were really like fucking with taco trucks like that in
the eighties and nineties because you weren't not Fresno, but the Bay wasn't.
And so I remember being in class and hearing like people just think, oh
yeah, whant to hit the taco truck after the club, like that was
a thing in simple Callie. So I was like, oh okay. And
I noticed that like every little city, Kingsburg, d Nuba, read like,
they all like had this one truck that they were like like, that's
their truck. Like people would argue about like you know. So I pitched
the idea to the marketing department at the GRIS. I was like, Hey,
what if we bring like the best taco truck from every city to the
stadium and we'd let people vote, And at first they were like, why
would people come, you know, people come to eat at a taco truck.
And we did it. We had eight trucks the first year and it
cracked off like people loved it, and so each year we just kept growing
it and growing it, and they asked they promoted me to marketing manager.
I became like marketing creative manager. And then when the Giants left in twenty
fourteen October twenty fourteen, they just kind of knew that they needed to race
sort of the Central Cali brand. A lot of their promotions had relied on
their affiliation with the Giants and everything was just kind of piggybacking off of that,
and you know, losing the Giants like kind of forced them to find
themselves. And they were like, how do we like just give me the
rock? Like give me. I'm like, you know, I just had
to, like I kind of had like lebron up right then. So I
became director of marketing and just kind of built the pro Fresno pro California.
Yeah, yeah, and then and yeah, I was director of marketing for
let's see, I started in twenty fifteen and all the way up to COVID
but that's when I brought in Dorian, and so I started bringing in more
of the I guess local culture into the into the brand. Well, I
want to go. I think I was just going to say, like there
was just there was so many great promotions during that time of the Grizzlies,
and it was such a fun era. And not to mention they were really
good during that time too. I just I remember just going to the games
just to cop a hat or do you get some march you know, one
of my favorites was like the Simpsons. There was just some dope shit during
that time. I wanted to just before we continue with that, part of
the story is going back to the Taco truck throwdowns the beginnings, because remember
the first ones was just this small, wasn't It wasn't that local artists in
the beginning as performers, and it was like outside the stadium sort of,
right. Yeah, yeah, it went on simultaneously during the game. Yeah
yeah, yeah, that's right. And so yeah, good thing you brought
that up, because actually actually a big point. So twenty it started in
twenty eleven was the first one, yep, and then twenty fifteen it was
just ridiculous I mean we just know it was cracking outside in the Tillary Plaza
and no one was really paying attention to the game to be h. I
mean, you know, the core hardcore baseball fans were and we were sort
of, you know, just debriefing after the game, and I was in
Derek Franks, the president of the Grizzlies office, yep, and we were
just saying to each other, We're like, man, like no one even
like watched the game, might as well change our names to the fres No
Tacos. And they were like, yo, oh, ship, we should
change our name to the friends No Tacos. So that was Derek Frank's well,
yeah, kind of both yeah, like we both like we like Derek
Derek said it as like a joke almost, yeah. And then I was
like, nah, like that's gonna work, yeah, because you know,
I mean one thing like obviously, like you know, I love pissing off
suburban nights, like I live for that ship. Yeah, And so I
was like, oh, this is really going to piss off like all the
you know what. I just knew that that was you know, your crow,
your cookie cutter, Like I just knew that that would really get under
their skin and that's like, that's one of the few things that brings me
like you know. So I was like, man, if we change our
name to the Freds No Tacos, like it's going to piss these people to
funk off. And I was like, I love it, and we so
we did that sort but you know, it ended up we only did it
for two Tuesdays. We're still the fres No Grizzlies. But we did the
alt We created the alter ego of a baseball team, and yeah, no
one was doing that, not one, not one in the leagues. There
was a team from Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. They had they're called the Iron
Pigs, and they had done a hat with a strip of bacon on it.
So they were the first ones to do sort of like a food but
they didn't change their name to like the lee High Valley Baconcons. Yeah,
we were the first ones to sort of like do it, like, look,
we're we have an alter ego. It's the friends of Tacos and we
you know, so does that stuff have to get cleared by like the MLB
or something like that. Yeah, it did, it did. So we
had to create a you know, an on field hat and whatnot, and
and we we did it as a press conference. I think we're changing our
name. And at first we kind of you know, did the w W
like like yeah, like you know, just to rile people up. And
then we you know, said like now we're only on Tuesdays. Ye,
but yeah, it got the it got the hype, and that became like
a national thing. Yeah, I've already seen it. Yeah. Well,
actually a few promotions I remember seeing like on ESPN and a lot of these
things were always making the news and stuff about what the promotions we were doing
out here, which was dope to get that notoriety. Yeah, that was
definitely like something that I felt was sort of important for the Grizz because I
know, unfortunately Fresno doesn't really rock with something until like it gets attention outside
of Fresno, and so unfortunately I had to like get some hype around the
Griz. But I seeing just what you know, I've always been pretty good
at like what's trending. One thing I didn't mention like also, you know,
I was in Valail as a kid. I would be at the bus
stop and I'd hear dudes rapping and stuff, and I'd be like man I
could do that. I was like, I could, you know, and
I could come up. But I never wanted to like make music. I
just wanted to like rap, to like let other people know that they weren't
that good at rapping. And part of like rapping, at least back then,
what you used to have to have like real clever metaphors and and you
also had to be very topical. You had to always know like what was
you know, like uh or like you know, like the day that you
know OJ's in the van, like you have to you know, like jumping
the cipher and you're like, yo, you know, I'm I'm OJ and
no white fan, you know, like you have. And so I was
always really good at like the minute. Like for example, I was I
was in Valao actually visiting a family. I'm in traffic in between Valao on
Fairfield and my phone starts going off like just crazy text messages. I thought
somebody died. I pull over and like seven people had sent me this link
of when twenty sixteen, when Trump was running for president, and this one
of like a Trump supporter said something about like We're gonna have taco trucks on
every corner. I don't know if you guys remember that. I was like
the thing and I was like, oh my gosh, this is like so
I brushed out. Yeah, like we got like the red hats that looked
like the Trump hat, and I made them say Taco trucks on every corner,
bringing ordered like we photoshopped and put it on our website and we sold
a thousand of those hats, like pre ordered, like like we didn't even
have a man's thought yet. Yeah, you know, And so that's something
that's I've always been pretty good at, and it's something that's like sort of
a norm now in minor league baseball. So you have to just be like
topical and like, you know, you guys too and radio. Yeah,
yeah, you know, you gotta get in when it's hot. Real quick.
Let me wrap up the Taco truck throw down thing, because what number
are we in. It's been Taco Truck throw Down thirteen now, yeah,
it's actually been four. It's fourteen years we had it. We didn't do
one on the COVID twenty Yep. It's such a staple in the city.
Everyone waits for it and anticipates the Taco truck throw down. We're lucky enough
to as a radio station to be a part of it as well too.
My my curiosity is how how much are you putting into it today with these
recent shows? Are you still part of it? And you don't have to
say too much detail, but do you still get paid from it? Oh?
Yeah, yeah, I mean I'm a consultant with the Grizzlies, so
I would be like part of the marketing creative. Okay, so but they
sort of took it over the Grizzlies. Yeah, oh yeah, So it's
always been part of the Grizzlies. But then Mike Oz from he used to
be with the Fresno by now he's with Presdent Street Eats to Mike Ouse and
I it was you know, are it was. It was my idea.
But it would have never gotten done without my gods, because my gods had
the connections to all the trust and so they brought them in. And then
just over the years, you know, like k Rich has been part of
it also, like it has helped with you know, and like so with
a lot of the events like Tequila f s and some of these events,
like I work with I work with Rich, I work with my Cause,
Street Dats Ray, and I work with the Grizzlies marketing department. Might still
have my office at the grizz Oh okay, I'm still there. Yeah,
you know, and so you still get a check from them, like you
know yeah, oh oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, I mean
you left the grizz No, no during uh they didn't have a season in
twenty twenty. Yeah, you know, so all of us just kind of,
you know, we're laid off. And they asked me to come back
as a consultant, and I said, well, I'm just going to start
a marketing me. I'm gonna basically turn ft K into a events and marketing
agency and you can hire FTK as a you know, so that's what kind
of I help with the events, and then I also design merch and I
I'm sort of like, I guess, like a marketing creative consultant for for
them and for Cockies and for you know a lot of like like that's what
I do. That's pretty much FTK becomes sort of a uh well, I
mean I have a have a vintage store downtown, but it's uh, you
know, kind of as a how would I say this? Yeah, let's
let's talk about this store because you sort of uh have opened an ft K
again but not but not but not a store. So it's basically the FTK
vantage section. Beautiful building like the painting, like it stands out because it's
just in the middle of yeah. And it's so I had said this when
I closed FTK on Sean Blackstone started working for the GRIZ. I said,
eventually I'm going to real open a store, and I said, I was
like, I could probably put it in the middle of partlier because my core
customers will go wherever where it's at, Yeah, wherever it's at. And
so I ended up buying a building in downtown Fresno, and I have two
storefronts. I have what I call star Child Archives because I mean, it's
still the same logo, the little star Child FTK logo, but it's not
FTK. I don't have a Nike account anymore. I don't have larg I
don't have the brands. It's just I have FTK shirts that we make and
then vintage stuff. I mean a lot of people that know me know that
I'm a huge uh Fresno State merch collect a huge polo collector. So I
have just that type of stuff in there. You know you're gonna find like
Troop and British Knights and Diodora. And is it basically all the same size
because it's all your vintage stuff or no? No, I I dig like
so oh yeah, very yeah. Yeah. So I've been like and then
I trade I you know, uh, it's it's actually most of it is
not my size because because I keep all my stuff. Yeah. So and
the upstairs is all my stuff? But is it do you live upstairs?
Is it like an apartment call? Yeah? Okay, So is it true
that to shop there someone has to make an appointment? Yeah? Yeah,
yeah, oh wow exclusive. Yeah I like that. I am. It's
gonna sound like some like bitter old guys stuff, But I mean I was
so mad that like, well, I can't say, man, I don't
know how I feel. But I had all the like a lot of the
stuff that I have in the store now, like I had it in two
thousand and eight on Sean Blackstone, and you know, all these kids were
coming in asking me for you know, the hundreds and Crooks and castles and
all that stuff which I had before that, and they didn't want the vintage
stuff, and now they want to. So yeah, I'm definitely like making
it a little harder. You know, you have to go through a little
bit of so a little hoops and hurdles to get in. But yeah,
if you go, I mean, if you're listening to this podcast, like
you're tapped in enough, like go on star Child Archives dot com and you
can just set up an appointment And is it almost guaranteed or are you looking
at it like not today? No? No, I mean my online you
know, my social media persona might put off that vibe, but no,
that's not you guys know me, I'm not kinda liken man. If you're
if you're listening to this, if you've gotten this far in the interview and
care this like yeah, of course I'm you know, but yeah that the
well. And then also I'm I do events, so if someone's schedules an
appointment, like I'll either be there to open up the store or I'll get
someone to open up the store. Speaking of events, I got to experience
one. I'm at that age where I don't really go out as much,
all like going home and just like just relaxing. But I wanted to support
this certain one just because I've been living in downtown for a few years now
and it was that fashion show one and this thing. All the seats were
taken, but oh by Fulton. Yes, bro, that's one of my
That's one of the things I swear I'm most proud of. Like it's right
now, and I mean, you know, check this out. I'm gonna
let you explain more of it. But to make it real short, it's
local designers. But you have to there's like rules in this contest. You
have to buy clothes from this from Fulton, like from this until from this
street to this street, go shop at all these stores and make a few
outfits and then we do a fashion show. There's judges and I was like,
this is amazing, Like people need to know about this. It was
such a great event. Do you want to talk a little bit more on
that? Ye? Please please? Yeah, thank you so much for bringing
that up. Man. I'm glad that because I was so like everywhere,
you know, it was a lot going on. It's in that event.
But I'm stoked that you got to go to Pere. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. So the concept is that we take three stylists from central California and
then we task them with creating three unique outfits head to toe all with product
from the Fulton Corridor, so you know from I mean the Visitarro to Ino,
you know, and a lot of those. There's a lot of vintage
shops on there like that. Yeah, Bag of Kids Club is in Mammoth
Mall, so you can find some cool stuff stores I've never heard of before
until now, like like Threstormanos and like some of those like spots like and
especially with this whole wave of like Western stuff coming in, like I'm I'm
excited that the next one. I think people are going to embrace a lot
more of the Ostrich boots and you know, the cowboy hats and the vibe
that you get from there. And people are you know, obviously they're they're
they're customizing and doing like alterations and stuff and just building dope fits and working
with like what you have, not with what you wish you had. Y
yeeah. It was It was just wild because you know, during the competition
the designer will say I bought these shoes from this the pants are from this
store. Yeah, and it just plugs all the stores in that area,
and I love the winner gets a belt. Yeah yeah, yeah, I
got a championship belt for him and then they also get a check for a
thousand dollars amazing, which you know, like pays for because they have to
put up all that loot themselves to buy the outfit. So it supports the
businesses, but the businesses are usually pretty cool about like loaning stuff to competitors
and giving them the jug on on on pieces. So that's one of the
events. I'm like this. It's actually where the This is a collap shirt
with Sincere that we did for for the event, But that's the event I
really want to grow the most. I don't think that Central Cali really gets
it yet. No, they haven't. They haven't seen it done anywhere else
yet, and it's gonna like you see something somebody do it someplace else and
then it's cool to support it. Yeah. Yeah, I'd like to do
like a style by Manchester, a style by Cherry Auction, like you know,
yeah, because I mean if you're if if if you have style like
you can build, yeah, you're fit anywhere? You know, is there
a place where people can get info on that or is it just through your
social media? So on? At FTK Construction on on IG, I always
post updates on there for style by Fulton and then I believe this year it's
going to be part of the Fulton Block party that the Downtown Partnership puts on.
So because we had our second one this year, you brought up your
social media. Something that I've noticed is you're on their freestyling. You have
like these sessions of just freestyle rapping. And there was this one day where
you started combining country and wrap. Oh yeah, and so that's okay.
So that's what where I think Central Cali got it twisted. But I'd been
saying for the longest time because I you know, I told you guys like
I grew up in Valle I grew up around like you know, dude's freestyling
and rapping and whatnot. And but I also would come down here and stay
at my grandparents' ranch like outside of Kalinga, yep. And I never listened
to rocking. I listened to country music when I was a kid. You
know. I grew up with that in my veins. And when I started
hearing I guess Kevin Gates might have been like the I started hearing like those
melodies, right, I was like, oh, these are country melodies like
this is and I saw I'd say like, hey, man, like Fresno
should just embrace like the Bay. I remember when the Bay dudes, some
of the Bay dudes would come down and be like, oh man, Fresne,
I am a country. I'd be like, hell yeah, we are.
Just like lean into it, be like hey, we're country, what's
up? You know? Like and and then people but that's where people will
get twist. They'd be like, oh no, I've already heard hik hop
like they already have. Like I was like, no, man, I
don't want to hear country dudes rapping. I want to hear hood dudes singing
country melodies. And because that's essentially kind of what Kevin Gates was doing,
and then even Roddy Ridge, his melodies were very those are country, and
then rod Wave and so now that's what post Malone is doing, and that's
like the big Now the country scene is kind of like popular, right.
I So at that time that you're talking about, I wasn't even familiar that
others were sounding like this because I would just watch your video and you would
always say, trust me, this is gonna be like the next thing,
and correct me if I'm wrong. But that little nas X song came out
and next thing, you know, it blew up this country hip hop thing.
And I'm like, I saw this first during Sam's Instagram videos. But
the reason why the little it took a while for like the little nas X
thing too, So he was I want I say this like that was a
mockery of country, right, parody Yeah, parody parody, Yeah, for
sure, he was like kind of doing a parody of country. He wasn't
really And there's actually this kid that from Fresno. He I think he's like
from Calba area. His uh, you can find him on ig His name
is kid k I d D Country. I think the country with a K
kid country. And this is like a dude that grew up, you know,
in the hood in Fresno, but he sings country music and his style
of country music is you can definitely tell he's from the hood in Fresno,
you know. I mean, and I love it. I really love what
this dude is doing, you know. So I'm glad that, as I
mean, Fresnoe should be at the forefront of this. Unfortunately, Nashville is,
you know, kind of leading the way now and Nashville, Nashville is
a business Nashville is going to be the the the promotion for the music,
but I think that there's still enough room left where, like Fresno could really
develop its own sound, like sort of how Bakersfield had its country sound that
came out of you know, in the in the dust Bowl refugees, you
know, grapes of wrath era. Their kids became like the real Haggards and
the buck Owens, and you had like this Bakersfield sound of OKI's adapting to
California environment. I feel like Fresno could produce a sound that is country roots
influenced by the evolution of Fresnoe growing into an urban city. And so what
I would like to hear is less of the what was his name Morgan walland
like I don't even listen the country music. I'll keep it butt like I
listened to the old country music. I listened like Hank william Senior. I
listened to like the Morgan Wall and slowly getting into country lately. Yeah,
I mean and dope storytelling, man, Like great melodies, great storytelling.
But I'd like to see Fresno like not try to emulate what post Malone is
doing now. I'd like to see them sort of develop their own sound of
And I'm obviously going to be partial because I grew up in the Bay but
with such a heavy Bay Area mob influence and the high influence here, I
feel it's only right that there should be like a hiphi version of country.
So that's my dream. It's like the height Tonk, you know, so
I kind of want to switch up to this. It kind of goes with
the whole Instagram you posting. I'll look at comments sometimes and there's and this
is through the last few years. I'll just look and how do you feel
about the people that kind of say that you're corny or you're because it's you
always bring something so new that people are not used to. And I don't
know if I want to call it hate, but they judge you. I
mean that's gonna be and like people are gonna fear something that's different, know,
so outside the comfort zone. Yeah, yeah, I mean, uh,
I think that's gonna be. Unfortunately, what is holding Fresnel back from
creating its own version like I was describing, you know of Uh? If
Fresne were to just be like, man, I don't care if people call
me corny, you care if people say like that they don't get it,
and you just create a sound and you just run with that sound. Eventually
you know that there's gonna be a hundred people to catch on and then it's
gonna be you know when or they don't. But you you, you have
that sound. And so I at a real early age, I remember I
was listening to uh oc times up uh and he said I'd rather be broke
and have a whole lot of respect. And that's kind of how I've always
sort of, you know, like just lived looked at life. I was
like, I don't really, It's not so much about the money to me.
It's more about and as the older I get, it's even less about
the respect for me. Like honestly, if the people that I respect respect
me, I'm cool. You know. You know that's I'll wrap it up
with this. You know. I think the Fresno b came out with a
story about you during one of the times that you know where. I think
it was from the Grizzlies, and I believe it said like marketing genius.
Oh the dude from beat from ESPN had said that I was the smartest promoter
in baseball is because I was tapped into didn't you have like a sort of
like a feeling about that, like you didn't like, no, don't call
me a genius, Like yeah, no, I mean because like everybody has
some form of genius in them. It's just like what you're gonna apply it,
like if you have the right platform finding what your genius is. But
uh, yeah, I guess my question where where is this your mind is
so unique? Where is this coming from? Video? All that? I
mean? But I feel like most people have like creativity in them. I
mean, it's just uh how I say. I was fortunate enough to go
to a magnet school in the Bay Area that was I got Like I tell
people now, it's like it was woke before woke as woke, Like they
was progressive and they encouraged us to just not be afraid of our ideas,
but then also like not be so open minded that our brain has fallen out,
so to find that balance, find that balance, and then that just
really taught me to uh have a frame where I would condition an idea and
like be processing the logistics at the same time. And I mean, I'll
be honest, like freestyle rapping is a bit for that too. I mean
literally, like you know that sort of conditions your brain or just writing graffiti
and you know, being a doing that style of art, like trying to
make things connect, just like building metaphors in your mind is all part of
like that creative process. And I mean, but nowadays everyone is a creative
So it's just a matter of balancing like creativity with logistics and making sure that
it can that it can ship hit it out the door, you know.
Like so that's the main thing, is finding out like is this scalable?
Is this executable? You know, that's that's that's the big part of it
where I think that the writer from ESPN was was impressed that the staff that
we had in Fresno, that we were able to pull off the amount of
promos that we were doing that were so well received. And it was just
because you know, it's Fresno, man, like there's no one here to
help us, Like we don't have it, Like we got to do it
ourselves. All we got, we are all we got, Like so if
we don't do what, no one else is going to. So you know,
shouts out to Dorian, shouts out to Andy m and Derek Franks,
like everybody that was in the trenches with k Rich everyone that was in their
trenches with us during those years at the grids N twenty, the Bare Flag
Rebellion, you were. We really it was sink or swim during those years,
and so we really just we just had to make it work just to
just to go back on that. I mean, you can't bearing bearing gifts
with these hats which appreciate it. So Grizzly had the as a. Is
that the old English g Yeah? Yeah. So my question for you is,
because you had a lot of great ideas graphics, was there ever a
design or a promo or even an event that you pitched that just got shot
down? And you wish like, what have happened? Do you have one
of those? Yeah? Man, I mean to be honest like this,
you had mentioned the Simpsons merch before. I you know, I pitched that,
but then I I honestly wish like we wouldn't have done that because we
ended up getting a crazy fine. We got like a seventeen thousand dollars fine,
no shit, Yeah, man, I mean there's like stuff that Oh,
there's just so much like merch like that. I mean I approach Nike
about doing starter jackets like years ago. I wanted to do the the the
jazzy Jeff and fresh print summertime, the Starter shorts that I remember Starter.
I don't know if this my you you remember these may I don't know if
you're old enough, remember when Starter had those little the overall shorts and that
had the pin stripes. So I did a whole mock up of like this
like Starter, uh collection for Grizzlies, and because Nike owned Starter, and
I pitched it to Nike, and of course, my dumb mass, I
had to take it one step further, like like we were down there,
and then I took the the f wor I took the Starter s and I
turned it into an F and I made it a finisher instead of Starter.
And I don't know if Nike felt some type of way about that or what,
but they just like they're like nah, yeah no, they just went
like like dark on me. I did, but yeah, sometimes I will,
you know. That's one thing about where at the grids has made me
like reel it back a little bit, like I will sometimes take it.
I get this. Yeah, so that's the corporate right, Yeah, yeah,
I'm sure you guys know might get you might get yeah, exactly what's
next, What's uh, what's next for you? What's is there a new
project that we should be known about that's coming. So I'm hype that you
brought up the style by Fulton Man That's something that I'm super passionate about.
It's not, you know, as uh trendy or topical or whatnot like,
so it hasn't really gotten the energy that I wish it would have, but
it's something that I think is going to grow. It's something that I'm really
putting a lot of effort and energy into. Like I had mentioned, I
want to do like a style by Manchester, I want to do a style
by Cherry, but we're going to do another one of those style by Fulton's.
We're going to bring back the defending champions and I'm probably going to increase
the cash price for it, and of course, you know, the champions
have to defend their belt and then Taco Truck throw Down is November ninth,
so we're gonna start planning that way earlier. Right now, you can get
twenty dollars tickets on Fresno Grizzlies dot com. I don't know if anyone knows
that, but you're pretty much buying. You don't know who the artist I
was gonna ask, No artists yet or or not none announced at least none
announced. Okay, so but there you guys have people in mind. Yeah
yeah, okay, I mean I do, others do. It's sort of
like you know who who at point. But typically those of you, you
know, follow talk truck through now and we usually have a good Latino act
and then we usually have someone that's you know, more like core hip hop.
Yeah, so on the path've had Cypriss. It's usually kind of the
formula that you guys go with, yeah, yeah, which is very Fresno.
Yeah. Yeah, it's a good formula. Yeah, Chelino, Me's
Mac Drey, Yeah yeah, balance of Fresno. Yeah. Well it's been
man, it's been cool to finally get you on here and just chop it
up and just hear about stories that man, long time coming, Yeah for
sure. And I mean Fresno is my home. You know, I'm not
originally from here, but I've been living here for twenty years now, and
you make this city pop, like yeah, everyone, you definitely got your
hand in it. Yeah man, And I guess that's what I was trying
to say. Is. You have a big part of making this city what
it is. So thank you guys, and thank you guys for creating this
platform, forgetting you know, because I I can't say like I've exactly handed
off the baton because I do still have my hand in it. But like
there's younger guys that are really making it pop more than you know, like
uh, Dorian and yeah, you guys from Iron Bullies and my guy market
market here. Yeah, so I mean all the all the younger generation that
is, you know, like that's who I did it for the kids,
and those are the kids I did it for. That way of putting it.
Hey, man, I appreciate you being here. I live in downtown.
He lives in downtown. I see it. You walk everywhere. Like
yeah, I don't even think you drive, but every time I'm driving home
from work, you're I see you in the streets just walking around. I'm
in the streets. Yeah. So, yeah, continued success, and I
mean we're you know, we're friends. So I'm sure that we'll continue to
chop it up and help come by. Come by butter brunch on Sunday.
Oh there you go, I'm Cocky's right, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
there you. Yeah, yeah, but you're just gonna force the step some
Henny. That's why I don't drink anymore like that man. Yeah. All
right, well, and don't come throw down the plug your socials if you
want people to like to find you. F t K Construction is the marketing
and events. Uh. The store is star Child Archives at star Child Archives.
And if you want to hear some rants about streetwear fashion, might even
do Hyphie Talk Tuesday. That's at Sam at Sam from FDK. There it
is Sam. Thank you for joining us on this podcast. Until next time.
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