Speaker 1: This conversation is about more than fashion. It's about identity,
Speaker 1: it's about pride. It's about the quiet and sometimes loud
Speaker 1: revolution that happens when two people decide that representation is
Speaker 1: not just an idea, it's a responsibility. Prince and Omar,
Speaker 1: the founders of Rebjaa, took what many might have seen
Speaker 1: as a niche concept Jamaican culture, streetwear and unapologetic authenticity,
Speaker 1: and built a global platform from it. Not just a brand,
Speaker 1: but a voice, one that's been worn by celebrities, embraced
Speaker 1: by the diaspora, and recognized by the very culture they've
Speaker 1: worked assidiously to honor and elevate. And here's something we
Speaker 1: don't talk about enough. We wear clothing every day, yet
Speaker 1: we rarely know the stories or the people behind the
Speaker 1: brands we're wearing. We don't always ask who created this,
Speaker 1: what do they believe in? Or what message are we
Speaker 1: carrying on our bodies? But this episode will give you
Speaker 1: insight and I can guarantee you'll walk away from this
Speaker 1: episode knowing exactly who Prince and Omar are, not just
Speaker 1: as designers, but as humans, as men with deep values,
Speaker 1: powerful intention, and an unwavering love for their heritage. Listen.
Speaker 1: They could have easily named the brand after themselves or
Speaker 1: chosen something trendy, but instead they chose rep JA, which
Speaker 1: is short for Represent Jamaica, because they understood the assignment
Speaker 1: that what we wear can be more than fabric. What
Speaker 1: we wear is a statement, a billboard, a legacy. Some
Speaker 1: even say what you wear introduces you before you even speak.
Speaker 1: By the end of this episode, you won't just feel
Speaker 1: proud to wear a rep jaa clothing, swimwear, or a hat.
Speaker 1: You'll feel proud knowing who you're representing. Two real, grounded,
Speaker 1: genuine men who are using fashion to uplift an entire culture,
Speaker 1: their culture, our culture. Honestly, the Jamaica TOURUS Board might
Speaker 1: need to give these two a call because they're not
Speaker 1: just selling apparel. They are advertising Jamaica, one article of
Speaker 1: clothing at a time. So, yes, it's sundlight. Need to
Speaker 1: get on board if you ask me. As usual, this
Speaker 1: conversation is filled with moments of introspection, a little bit
Speaker 1: of eye water laughter. Of course, you know, it's not
Speaker 1: a l T d T episode if we're not laughing.
Speaker 1: That's all we do ninety percent of the time. But
Speaker 1: you're going to learn something. You're going to connect with
Speaker 1: Prince and Omar, and I'm so excited for you to
Speaker 1: hear this episode. So grab your tea, coffee, or a
Speaker 1: glass of wine and let's talk.
Speaker 2: To Things before gans to show I never known this
Speaker 2: topresent everywhere.
Speaker 1: Girl in Final Clean.
Speaker 3: If you.
Speaker 2: Clea it's a.
Speaker 1: Infinite Hello everyone, Welcome back to another episode of Let's
Speaker 1: Talk to Things, where we discuss personal growth, travel, music,
Speaker 1: beauty and wellness while encouraging you to live fearlessly and fabulously.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Ash and this week we are talking
Speaker 1: the Things with Prince and Omar, the co founders of
Speaker 1: rep Ja, a bold, unapologetic lifestyle brand that's inspired by
Speaker 1: the energy, rhythm, and the resilience of Jamaica. Hi, Prince
Speaker 1: and Omar, how are you welcome?
Speaker 4: Thank you USh, i'ming us them one, blessed us, glad to.
Speaker 1: Be here, no problem. I'm happy to have you guys here.
Speaker 1: So yes, thank you for coming to talk the Things
Speaker 1: with me and for you and our first time listeners.
Speaker 1: We begin each episode with our listener's favorite segment, and
Speaker 1: it's called that no sounds safe. So the title alone
Speaker 1: sounds crazy, right, That's what makes it good. So I'm
Speaker 1: going to read messages or social media posts that listeners
Speaker 1: sent in, and if you think it's crazy or a
Speaker 1: little concerning, you'd say that sounds safe and explain why.
Speaker 1: And if you agree, you just say you agree or
Speaker 1: that sounds safe, whatever you want to say, and explain
Speaker 1: why sounds good? So good, all right, perfect, perfect, all right.
Speaker 1: So the first person said, before you argue with anyone,
Speaker 1: ask yourself, is that person even mentally mature enough to
Speaker 1: grasp the concept of a different perspective, because if not,
Speaker 1: there's absolutely no point.
Speaker 3: I say that's safe.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's safe.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. I think like longer, the days of
Speaker 1: arguing with people that you know don't really understand your
Speaker 1: perspective anyway, it just seems like a waste of energy.
Speaker 4: Right, I want to listen because I mean, everybody going
Speaker 4: with them grow up, you know, their level of reasoning,
Speaker 4: all of that stuff make a difference as well.
Speaker 1: So I agree exactly exactly, And I think that when
Speaker 1: you're younger, you think that you can convince other people
Speaker 1: to like see your side, But like you said, when
Speaker 1: persons grow a certain way, they have to decide to
Speaker 1: want to change. You can't make anybody change your mind
Speaker 1: and their mind. And if you think about how hard
Speaker 1: it is for you to change your own mind about things,
Speaker 1: you'd understand how difficult it is to change somebody else's mind,
Speaker 1: you know, right, yeah.
Speaker 4: For sure?
Speaker 1: All right, so we all agree that sounds safe. One
Speaker 1: the same, all right? The next one. Someone said, my
Speaker 1: love language is playfulness. I love when the space between
Speaker 1: me and someone I'm interested in is filled with laughter.
Speaker 1: You know, someone is God said, when they bring out
Speaker 1: your inner child.
Speaker 4: It's not.
Speaker 2: Chance.
Speaker 3: That's not over yet.
Speaker 4: So this is.
Speaker 1: But you know, somebody, if you think about it, somebody
Speaker 1: can think that this is not safe because maybe somebody
Speaker 1: out there doesn't like their inner child, and maybe they
Speaker 1: take life very seriously and they don't like playfulness, so
Speaker 1: that could not be safe.
Speaker 3: For some This is true.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And then it's also a give and take as well,
Speaker 4: because that person's love language could be playfulness, But do
Speaker 4: they understand what their partner how their partner how do
Speaker 4: they want their partner to interact with them as well?
Speaker 4: Because certain level, but I might not be as playful,
Speaker 4: but my way of showing you that I'm playful with
Speaker 4: you might not be as intense as you might like it,
Speaker 4: but can you accept that.
Speaker 1: As well exactly? And sometimes people don't run certain jokes,
Speaker 1: so you could think something is like playful, and somebody
Speaker 1: could look at you like, wait are you talking to me?
Speaker 1: Like you can't be talking to me, and you could think, wait,
Speaker 1: that's how I play around, you know. So so yeah,
Speaker 1: somebody out there could think it's not safe, but I
Speaker 1: agree with you both. I think that sounds safe.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, them people, those people if yeah, that's a
Speaker 3: whole consation. But I think, I think, I think, I
Speaker 3: think if you take a life that serious to where
Speaker 3: you can't take a joke and you're really about to
Speaker 3: jump out the window and give somebody crazy, there's some
Speaker 3: other underlying issues you need to realize exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: Those are some things that you need to work out
Speaker 1: because life is too short to be that serious all
Speaker 1: the time. But I'm sure we do know people out
Speaker 1: there that are very serious for no reason.
Speaker 3: So for sure, Okay, the.
Speaker 1: Next person said, sometimes I just want someone to hug
Speaker 1: me and say, I know it's hard, you're going to
Speaker 1: be okay, here's some tea and five million dollars.
Speaker 4: Wish wish for thinking I think everybody wanted to, right, Yes, everybody,
Speaker 4: Well take a whole ground five minutes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, something small, nothing.
Speaker 4: Won't hurt the bunk account too much.
Speaker 1: Exactly, exactly. Something too crazy, nothing too crazy?
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I mean, and I guess the underline with
Speaker 4: that is just, you know, encouragement from some aspects, because
Speaker 4: most of the time, when you're going through a certain situation,
Speaker 4: it's harder to see how easy sometimes it is to
Speaker 4: just either leave it alone or go another path. But
Speaker 4: because we're just so much involved emotionally, it's hard to
Speaker 4: see it. That's why it's easy for us to give
Speaker 4: feedback to other people, Like all you have to do
Speaker 4: is this because something it just looks clearer as a
Speaker 4: path of how to get over out of it, But
Speaker 4: when you're in it, it seems much harder to get
Speaker 4: out of that situation. Yes, you know. So you know,
Speaker 4: sometimes you just need a friend to say, you know,
Speaker 4: sorry for doing it. This is you know. Yeah, it's
Speaker 4: easier for them to give up because they're not as
Speaker 4: emotionally involved with the outcome exactly.
Speaker 1: And I think that's why empathy is so important, right,
Speaker 1: Sometimes you just need a friend to listen, to understand
Speaker 1: and not necessarily to respond and come with this like
Speaker 1: deep op trope or advice, because you might not be
Speaker 1: ready for that in that moment.
Speaker 3: Just me, I've been there, I've been there. They're like, yeah,
Speaker 3: I just need it. I just needed somebody to listen
Speaker 3: to me. I didn't need any advice.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's so true, and it's so funny you say that,
Speaker 1: because I remember thinking my brother was so odd for
Speaker 1: this when when I was younger and I would come
Speaker 1: to him with things. He would say to me before
Speaker 1: I start telling him, do you want me to give
Speaker 1: you advice? Or do you want me to just listen?
Speaker 1: And I would be like, that's so weird. Just listen,
Speaker 1: like why are you even asking me that? But the
Speaker 1: old guy I appreciated that because sometimes I didn't want
Speaker 1: him to say anything, and other times I wanted him
Speaker 1: to tell me, like exactly what I need to do,
Speaker 1: you know. So yeah, I think that's an important distinction
Speaker 1: that we should try to make, even if you don't
Speaker 1: say that, you know, like literally just listen, like let
Speaker 1: the person have to tell you, okay, so omar prince,
Speaker 1: like what should I do next? Rather than you just
Speaker 1: putting it on them, you know, right, yeah, and.
Speaker 4: Then it goes to when when that opportunity present presents
Speaker 4: itself for you to give a response if they are asking,
Speaker 4: that's when that clarity comes in where you can see it.
Speaker 4: Because sometimes we want to be the hero and tell
Speaker 4: people what to do. Meanwhile, we don't have our own
Speaker 4: stuff together. So you know, when you can actually listen
Speaker 4: and as I said, empathetically or not emotionally connected to
Speaker 4: the situation, on the outcome, yeah, then it's like, okay,
Speaker 4: it seems much more clear. But you know, as I
Speaker 4: said earlier, when you're going through it, it seems like
Speaker 4: this is the hardest decision ever.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: But the more we can can kind of step out
Speaker 4: of it and look up on it, you know, externally,
Speaker 4: then it becomes easier. But yeah, just sometimes for somebody
Speaker 4: to listen. Most of the time, that's all I really want.
Speaker 4: That somebody kill us here urself.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and just one last thing to close the loop
Speaker 1: on that you made me, just think of something else.
Speaker 1: It's all so important who you have listening to, because
Speaker 1: if you go to somebody that's already bad mind or
Speaker 1: really doesn't care for you, they're probably going to tell
Speaker 1: you something that you probably shouldn't do. But because you're
Speaker 1: looking at them as someone that does care for you,
Speaker 1: you're thinking like, oh, maybe that is good advice, when
Speaker 1: in reality they could be trying to throw you off
Speaker 1: your path. So you have to use discernment, you know,
Speaker 1: when choosing, and you're going to with your problems for sure.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1: Definitely, definitely Okay, So that one, that one sounds safe
Speaker 1: for saying, yeah, yep, okay, perfect, all right. So the
Speaker 1: next person said, I think.
Speaker 4: You have set we up with that one, and set
Speaker 4: up I feel like a set up. A no, no no.
Speaker 1: But this one is this one is specific to men though,
Speaker 1: I will say that. So this person said, black men
Speaker 1: need to choose better mates. You can't build a peaceful, purposeful,
Speaker 1: or powerful life with someone who doesn't have the emotional
Speaker 1: maturity to co create with you. Emotional competence is everything.
Speaker 1: It's the ability to communicate with clarity, to hold space
Speaker 1: space for your growth, to challenge you with love, and
Speaker 1: to walk beside you through life's inevitable transitions. That one's
Speaker 1: a little deep.
Speaker 4: But yeah, one deep. I think I think that one
Speaker 4: is aspirational in its in its context, But how do
Speaker 4: you bring that to reality all right, because there's nuances
Speaker 4: in life that don't make the simplest thing as simple
Speaker 4: as it should be. And then it also depends on
Speaker 4: your where you are in life. You know, what age
Speaker 4: are you refering into? You know, how many situations have
Speaker 4: you been through for certain aspects to say, Okay, this
Speaker 4: is what I want to know, Because at twenty three,
Speaker 4: twenty five, twenty eight, you might not be looking for
Speaker 4: all of that. You know, you might just be looking
Speaker 4: for certain aspects. Then when the more much or older
Speaker 4: you get, yeah, and you're like, you know what I've
Speaker 4: done certain things? No, this is what I'm looking for
Speaker 4: in this part of my life. So there's there's a
Speaker 4: lot to unpack.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: My simple overview with synopsis is not capturing everything. But
Speaker 4: I think it's it needs more context overall, because you
Speaker 4: can just say, yeah, I want this, but it depends
Speaker 4: on where you are.
Speaker 3: Yeah. My take on it is I agree with what
Speaker 3: you're saying. Oh, but also I think people should already
Speaker 3: know what they want it's like but you don't have
Speaker 3: to act on it. I think the problem with a
Speaker 3: lot of people now is they don't know what they want,
Speaker 3: so it takes them longer to figure out what they
Speaker 3: want when they get to a certain age, because it's
Speaker 3: somebody who's twenty three who knows exactly what they want
Speaker 3: and they can go get it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: So I think I think people are just lost in general,
Speaker 3: like black this loss in general. Women are just lost
Speaker 3: in general to war.
Speaker 1: Yeah I don't.
Speaker 3: They don't.
Speaker 4: They don't know what.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they don't know what they want, so they have
Speaker 3: no foundation to stand up. It's no different than your
Speaker 3: parents are preachers. Right, So you know that I'm supposed
Speaker 3: to do this, you know what I mean? You know
Speaker 3: how you're supposed to move? Like you said, if you
Speaker 3: knew better, you do better right, right, right, So you
Speaker 3: can choose. I'm gonna go left or right, but at
Speaker 3: least you know if I go left, this is gonna happen.
Speaker 3: If I go right, that's gonna happen. So I think
Speaker 3: people just need to know what they want. But yes,
Speaker 3: you don't have to act on them, because at twenty
Speaker 3: three or a young age, you're just trying to have fun.
Speaker 3: At least you can say, at least you know, eventually
Speaker 3: this is the type of person I want, and figure
Speaker 3: out who you are within yourself. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3: I think people don't know themselves. You don't know yourself,
Speaker 3: how you're gonna know somebody else? You get what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: So I think self improvement and working on yourself and
Speaker 3: your emotions so when it's time for that person to come,
Speaker 3: you can receive them, because you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because you can't. If you don't know yourself and
Speaker 1: you meet somebody that's really great and completely aligned with
Speaker 1: you and you know, will push you, you won't even
Speaker 1: appreciate it, and you won't recognize it, correct recognize it.
Speaker 4: And I agree, And that's why I mentioned you know
Speaker 4: where you are in your life because once again I can.
Speaker 4: Let's say we receive the keys to unlocking everything about
Speaker 4: business when we were twenty two. We weren't muture enough
Speaker 4: to accept that, or we weren't mure enough to take
Speaker 4: advantage of that information when it came about younger. But
Speaker 4: know that we're older in the game and understand certain things. No,
Speaker 4: it's like WHOA If I had that information, I'm sorry,
Speaker 4: If I was emotionally as advanced or emotionally as you know,
Speaker 4: ready to receive that information, then it would have been
Speaker 4: a different situation. No, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 4: it just depends on you can find that somebody younger,
Speaker 4: but if you're not at that place yet to receive that, Yeah,
Speaker 4: adding to what you're saying, then it doesn't it doesn't
Speaker 4: matter if that person come earlier. Even if you know
Speaker 4: who you are, I think over time you would develop
Speaker 4: and understand who you are. And every day we're learning
Speaker 4: because every day we're like whom I love that not
Speaker 4: to be It's part of the issue is and I
Speaker 4: forgot the exact phrase, but we're basically influenced and living
Speaker 4: other people's lives. So most of the times there's certain
Speaker 4: things that we say that we want, but we only
Speaker 4: want it because we see somebody else that did this,
Speaker 4: sort of have that, and that doesn't align with even
Speaker 4: what we want. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 4: so there's a there's a lot of story there. Yeah,
Speaker 4: a lot of nuances that that and many outcomes that
Speaker 4: can come from it. But it's it's it's it's it's
Speaker 4: harder than what it is, and you know it.
Speaker 1: Definitely you bring up a good point because I every
Speaker 1: now and then I have men on here and I
Speaker 1: love to like pick you guys's brain in that talking
Speaker 1: about that? Do you think that and this is kind
Speaker 1: of like a separate question, which I actually never do,
Speaker 1: but now I'm intrigued. Do you think that social media
Speaker 1: hasn't has an effect on what men perceive they should
Speaker 1: want at a certain.
Speaker 3: Because I's people put unnecessary pressure on themselves, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean. When we were younger, all you cared
Speaker 3: about was just buy and see because getting fresh, hanging out,
Speaker 3: going to the movies, playing outside, video games. Now a
Speaker 3: sixteen year old feel like if I didn't make a
Speaker 3: millionaire because I got friends that's on TikTok or friends
Speaker 3: that's on YouTube, they made a million or they see
Speaker 3: Kyson out and they're like, man, they feel like a
Speaker 3: failure because they're like, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 3: it's like they put unecessary pressure on themselves. And then
Speaker 3: when you take it back to the social media with
Speaker 3: the men, as far as I put like this, back
Speaker 3: in the days, all you saw when it comes to
Speaker 3: like female options, well, who was in your neighborhood or
Speaker 3: who went to your shoes or who was you know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying. Now I can be in Atlanta or
Speaker 3: New York and I can see a girl in Australian
Speaker 3: I can you know what I mean? Before all I
Speaker 3: saw is what I saw in front of me. I
Speaker 3: didn't have no way to access all these different women
Speaker 3: around the world. So now every time you see one,
Speaker 3: you're like, wow, I didn't know there was a Chinese
Speaker 3: and black girl. Or I always put like this with people.
Speaker 3: I said, I'm jay Z cheated on Beyonce. Nobody's Oh
Speaker 3: my gosh.
Speaker 1: I say that all the time. If you understand, ally,
Speaker 1: burying not safe. None of us happened.
Speaker 3: Nobody is safe, you know what I mean. So I'm like,
Speaker 3: anybody could get it.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that's hilarious. I literally say that example
Speaker 1: all the time, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: So now I was like, there's too many options out there,
Speaker 3: so everybody's thinking I can get better. I can get better, and.
Speaker 4: Just adding to what you're same, everything he says is correct.
Speaker 4: So it's like just adding you just said a key friz,
Speaker 4: which is when it said everybody the last part of
Speaker 4: it Twitter, I'm trying to catch it. But the options
Speaker 4: everybody think we have, yes, it's the thing, and that's
Speaker 4: the misconception. You think you have the option. Because you
Speaker 4: see a hot girl, you can instantly send a d
Speaker 4: M to our You might ignore the girl that's down
Speaker 4: the street that you might need to put their attention to.
Speaker 4: But because you have instant access or simplified access to
Speaker 4: somebody who's way more quote unquote pretty, but you don't
Speaker 4: know how crazy this person is. And it's vice versa
Speaker 4: for men and women as well. You don't know, you
Speaker 4: don't know that. Yeah, you don't know them, You don't
Speaker 4: know anything. And then remember online is everybody is a facade.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's your best to be able to your.
Speaker 4: Best of everything, even that even the bad days are
Speaker 4: still better than everybody else best dare so nothing you
Speaker 4: see you can't believe. And then no, of course, going
Speaker 4: into the advent of AI where everything can be unfilters,
Speaker 4: everybody is being tricked.
Speaker 1: I feel for you know, sometimes I feel I don't
Speaker 1: like feel sorry for men often, but I feel it
Speaker 1: for you guys because some of these AI photos and
Speaker 1: stuff I've seen, I'm like, wait, that's not a real person.
Speaker 1: I'm so confused.
Speaker 3: That's crazy and everybody.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, so that that false option that we have
Speaker 4: or false you know, you know, access to better is
Speaker 4: what's keeping a lot of people away because they're waiting
Speaker 4: for that. They're waiting to try that, they're waiting to
Speaker 4: meet that type of person, and ignoring the girl at
Speaker 4: school and the girl at church or the girl at
Speaker 4: the bus stop is like, should I like the one
Speaker 4: should have had like the one online? But personality she
Speaker 4: could be the best one for you, but you're going
Speaker 4: to ignore her.
Speaker 1: Nowadays, you see somebody online, you don't even know if
Speaker 1: that's how they look in person, right, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? So you could see someone online and they
Speaker 1: could look like Beyonce and in person they look like
Speaker 1: Ninja man, And that's a scary thought. That is not
Speaker 1: so safe at all.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's crazy. That's a while. If you're sure you
Speaker 3: look like that, that's rough. That's rough.
Speaker 1: Listen, all children are beautiful. But what we're trying to
Speaker 1: say is make sure that your photos match hole you
Speaker 1: really look what if you go missing? We have to
Speaker 1: be able to identify who you are. This is true, Okay,
Speaker 1: And two more, the next person said, don't play Dominos
Speaker 1: with a Caribbean person unless you are prepared for war.
Speaker 3: Safe.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but also at not safe because sometimes you guys
Speaker 1: take it too far.
Speaker 3: I say safe because we know what to expect. Now,
Speaker 3: if you want to ask the question if you're if
Speaker 3: you're an American and you play Caribbean, that is not
Speaker 3: safe for you.
Speaker 5: But Jamaica, you know, even even as Jamma, everybody when
Speaker 5: I caught you, every you know what I mean, everybody talking,
Speaker 5: everybody talking crazy when I.
Speaker 4: Caught you, everyone did, especially if people entire hand. Yeah,
Speaker 4: when I.
Speaker 1: Have a hilarious story. So when I was younger, I
Speaker 1: went to my uncle's house and like my dad and
Speaker 1: all my uncles were playing dominoes, and I guess I
Speaker 1: just hadn't been around at that time, like my uncles
Speaker 1: and everyone playing domino So I came, you know, really little,
Speaker 1: with like this glass in my hand, glass of water.
Speaker 1: Somebody slammed down the dominoes and I was so frightened.
Speaker 1: I just dropped everything. And I remember being like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, like I just wasn't expecting it. So every
Speaker 1: time I think of dominoes, I think of that one time.
Speaker 4: So never see it for you.
Speaker 1: No, the same never been the same as that.
Speaker 4: You're as Domino Domino.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, yes, Ludi too, Oh my god, that's
Speaker 1: that's louty is one of my favorites, though it's not
Speaker 1: as aggressive as dominoes. But yeah, I agree, that's that's
Speaker 1: on the board as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I played. I played dominoes the other day with
Speaker 3: cipher sounds when I was in Toronto. But they played
Speaker 3: the way when they count the cards they count the dominoes.
Speaker 4: I just match them, know, yeah, they're matching.
Speaker 3: But then but then they added up the numbers and
Speaker 3: that's how you score points and I was like, yeah,
Speaker 3: this isn't that's yes, it's called bones. It's like how
Speaker 3: they kind of like they're playing in l ah. So
Speaker 3: you matched the sides of you put a five down
Speaker 3: and this time you get ten points, twenty points, and
Speaker 3: then they write on a piece of paper and then
Speaker 3: that's how they went whoever had the highest by the time.
Speaker 1: Again, And I was like, yanke, that's more reserved.
Speaker 3: When you're playing dominoes like that.
Speaker 4: You said, we're not going to slam the dominoes. We're
Speaker 4: going to count.
Speaker 1: Yes, we're going to place him very nicely.
Speaker 4: Trust me, there's no yelling at this table. Nah. It was.
Speaker 3: It was the most full way of playing down. I
Speaker 3: was like, this is don't make no sense can't be
Speaker 3: you can't be drunk or whatever playing that type of
Speaker 3: down because you have to count everything. It's great, like
Speaker 3: you're supposed to be Jamaican. You're supposed to be Jamaican,
Speaker 3: and what are you doing?
Speaker 1: Son, he's playing the foreign version.
Speaker 4: If I get.
Speaker 3: Bunning far and him there, you know.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that's hilarious.
Speaker 3: Okay, that big up.
Speaker 1: The final one for this segment. Being in the wrong
Speaker 1: environment can cap your potential and have you feeling less valuable.
Speaker 1: A part of committing to your elevation is placing yourself
Speaker 1: in places where you are valued.
Speaker 3: Yes, I say this is true.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well we're only supposed to say one or two
Speaker 4: there was it safe and not safe? So see if
Speaker 4: as in yeah, that's safe as in like the logic
Speaker 4: of it correct because you know, you can either grow
Speaker 4: in a certain environment or you can stifle and sometimes
Speaker 4: or you need once again, certain environments is just encouragement.
Speaker 4: You know, a person can be in a in a
Speaker 4: wrong environment, but you have somebody encouraging you to be
Speaker 4: better exactly, and you know you can you can get
Speaker 4: out of that. But you can also be in a
Speaker 4: good environment. But we've seen this all the time, but
Speaker 4: you around the wrong company exactly. So the environment, the
Speaker 4: environment is one half of it. Yes, you know your
Speaker 4: company and who you are around and your influences and
Speaker 4: you know, just the support system also make a major difference. Yes,
Speaker 4: you have the wrong bridging. The wrong bridging can eat
Speaker 4: it on it the wrong path, or you can the
Speaker 4: right region and encourage it to be better. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and your physical environment doesn't matter, like you said,
Speaker 1: the environment meeting people you're around, you know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, got the physical environment contributes because it can
Speaker 4: contribute to true. Yeah, if you feel like if you
Speaker 4: feel like this is all that it's meant for me,
Speaker 4: or if you have another grinder, you know, I know
Speaker 4: there's more. You know, I said I need to get
Speaker 4: out of here and then you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: So it just all of it adds to all of
Speaker 4: it is clay life is definitely clay right, and all
Speaker 4: of it have you use to mold, from the environmental
Speaker 4: situations to fall backs to hurts to wins, all of
Speaker 4: it ultimately help you to become the individual and like
Speaker 4: with friends and support and encouragement, all of that players apart.
Speaker 4: So there's a big melting part of everything combined that
Speaker 4: help a person out at certain things, and then you have,
Speaker 4: you know, privilege, that's a part of it to some
Speaker 4: people have better situations, but when you're in certain things
Speaker 4: environment because you say up to on people and you're like, yo,
Speaker 4: why are you in this situation? And does be a
Speaker 4: bad money? I hang around it like you're not be
Speaker 4: a better situation a great environment? What a mud one?
Speaker 4: You said? Like why why?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sure we know plenty of people like that.
Speaker 4: You know what I mean, Daniel, have to get to
Speaker 4: you that who's surrounded by trying but end up going
Speaker 4: down a part because everybody is our own fully don't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, exactly exactly, yea, so can good and we
Speaker 1: are still I agree. I agree very well, said Prince.
Speaker 1: Were you going to say something, uh.
Speaker 3: Yeah, just agreeing with Omar saying it. Really, it's more
Speaker 3: so the mindset and who you surrounding yourself with, because
Speaker 3: like I said, we grew up in the hood and
Speaker 3: we wasn't on no foolishness. But also nowadays as well,
Speaker 3: it's access to see certain things. So even if you're
Speaker 3: in an environment, you can go online in this Google
Speaker 3: search and see other things that give you those experiences.
Speaker 3: If you don't have somebody to talk to you. So
Speaker 3: now it's like, yeah, you know, just like is this
Speaker 3: a type of way now compared to back in the
Speaker 3: day all you had was an encyclopedia book type of
Speaker 3: mind or a magazine. Now you can jump on YouTube.
Speaker 3: Yeah that's so that too. Yeah, I mean so true.
Speaker 1: That's a positive side about social media, I think, right
Speaker 1: for sure. Yeah, that you can be exposed to many
Speaker 1: different facets of life and that your actual physical environment
Speaker 1: is not indicative of where you can go in life.
Speaker 1: Like we all know those stories, you know, and a
Speaker 1: lot of times, especially in Jamaica, you know, a lot
Speaker 1: of the children that grow up that grow up in
Speaker 1: impoverished neighborhoods, it's not that they're not as smart as
Speaker 1: the uptone kids, they just don't have the access and
Speaker 1: the opportunity, you know. And that's what is really unfortunate,
Speaker 1: because then you have some Uptonne kids that have the
Speaker 1: access on the opportunity, and because they have so much
Speaker 1: of it, they're not even interested. They just rather sit
Speaker 1: at home, go to the beach, go on a boat,
Speaker 1: go to lime Key, Like they're just not interested in
Speaker 1: doing anything because they've had everything given to them.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like the grass is greener. Like you said,
Speaker 1: on the other side, you have one set looking at
Speaker 1: the other set wanting more, but you can still have
Speaker 1: persons in those envins groms encouraging you, you know, to
Speaker 1: follow your dreams or you know, maybe you don't want
Speaker 1: to be like your businessman dad. Maybe you want to
Speaker 1: be a DJ or a singer or something like that,
Speaker 1: and you need encouragement from those friends you met downtown
Speaker 1: because your own friends are just like, no, what, why
Speaker 1: would you want to do that? You know, you should
Speaker 1: go to school or whatever, you know, so it could
Speaker 1: work for Yep, yeah, for sure. Okay, great, well that
Speaker 1: was fun. I hope you guys enjoyed that for sure.
Speaker 3: I'm waiting for some more.
Speaker 4: Now we'll see if no, no, we'll like see if
Speaker 4: that was.
Speaker 1: Not too dangerous. I told you this show is you know,
Speaker 1: this show is fun but not not too crazy. Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, So no, we're going to really talk the things,
Speaker 1: and I want to begin with the moment before rep
Speaker 1: Ja your brand existed. So I want you to take
Speaker 1: me back to basically the conversation that started it all,
Speaker 1: Like what's happening in your lives when you first thought
Speaker 1: we need to build something that represents us as Jamaicans.
Speaker 4: It's two it's two aspects.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 4: One is we weren't necessarily starting out to build a
Speaker 4: clothing brand in one aspect of it, right, So one
Speaker 4: aspect is, hey, there's this is what's missing. But then
Speaker 4: there's an earlier aspect of just the fun where it started. Correct,
Speaker 4: you originally started doing like dancing T shirts. So when
Speaker 4: our first first first T shirt was mister Wakie Poles,
Speaker 4: and it was more just listening to music, dancing, vibing
Speaker 4: and just like, yo, why when I have a T
Speaker 4: shirt with Dispine that we can ultimately that's weird and start,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. So so it came from
Speaker 4: just a fun thing. It wasn't like, yo, this is
Speaker 4: real league. One hundred percent was missing in the market
Speaker 4: because we weren't emotionally, we weren't as connected to let's say,
Speaker 4: building fashion brands and no where everybody can go online
Speaker 4: and create a brand and you know say, hey, this
Speaker 4: is the these are the steps to take. Nobody was.
Speaker 4: We just were doing it for fun and printing up
Speaker 4: some shirts and you know, us wearing, and you know
Speaker 4: what I mean, it was just more along those lines.
Speaker 4: It wasn't hey, we're starting the bodice clothing brand of
Speaker 4: the world and this is where we go with it.
Speaker 4: It was more just like, yo, this is this is
Speaker 4: what we want to wear, and this would be dope
Speaker 4: and eventually, you know what I mean, you can get
Speaker 4: other people for weird too. And I think that was
Speaker 4: more like the inception of you know that, the dancing,
Speaker 4: because after walking pose then you know that came knowllinga
Speaker 4: golly creeper t shirts. These were take away yourself t shirt?
Speaker 4: You know, was it cut them off? You know what
Speaker 4: I mean? So I was like so many footloose is
Speaker 4: a Regent bull. So these were all dances created by
Speaker 4: you know, some of the top dancers and backing ideas,
Speaker 4: some over the mars the ding, so you know what
Speaker 4: I mean. So that's ultimately where the inception of everything
Speaker 4: came from, or the ideas of everything came from.
Speaker 1: Ah okay, And as you mentioned, a lot of it
Speaker 1: is related to music, right, and so there are a
Speaker 1: lot of ways to express like pride in yourself in
Speaker 1: your country on where you're from, through music, through food,
Speaker 1: through language, but why clothing, Like why did you guys
Speaker 1: choose that? Like what made you feel that apparel was
Speaker 1: the best medium for the message that you were trying
Speaker 1: to portray.
Speaker 3: I think one of the things was subconsciously, like I've
Speaker 3: always been into clothes, it's just been my thing. But
Speaker 3: also subconsciously it's one of those things where before us
Speaker 3: per se you didn't really see anything that everything was
Speaker 3: more a culture red green and gold or just a
Speaker 3: typical whatever. We were like, you know, I went to
Speaker 3: school of graphic design, Ohm. I went to school for
Speaker 3: web designs, so we always been creative. So it was
Speaker 3: one of those things like there's always been a thing
Speaker 3: to where it's like if what would we wear? So
Speaker 3: like all myself, it was something like instead of just
Speaker 3: doing red, gold and green, We're gonna put purple and
Speaker 3: neon green and just put it on a shirt, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. And then, like I said, it
Speaker 3: was like this experiment and it wasn't really like OHM said,
Speaker 3: it was like this is the planning. It just obviously
Speaker 3: the one that took off for us with the Tech
Speaker 3: Away Yourself shirt. What's the name? What's the name of them? Again? Yeah,
Speaker 3: So when we did that shirt, that shirt kind of
Speaker 3: really took off because they put it on. Everybody was like, Yo,
Speaker 3: what is this because nobody's ever seen a shirt for
Speaker 3: dancing for one like that. Because nobody else was doing that,
Speaker 3: we were pretty much the only ones making shirts like that.
Speaker 3: And then pretty much that's the shirt that set it
Speaker 3: off us to where we're like, Yo, this could really
Speaker 3: be a thing per se. But obviously you still didn't
Speaker 3: take it as serious seriously.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you just because something there.
Speaker 3: Because we were learning everything on our own. You know,
Speaker 3: there was no like you demies or YouTube course or
Speaker 3: like how it is now where everybody can tell you
Speaker 3: how to start a brand. It was none of that
Speaker 3: was around. So everything was childing there and we just
Speaker 3: learning as we're going along. Wow, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: So yeah, well what did What would you say was
Speaker 1: like the biggest lesson that you learned in the beginning,
Speaker 1: because as you said, you didn't have really any reference points,
Speaker 1: which is so amazing to see where you've come, right.
Speaker 4: I mean, there's there's been a lot of lessons throughout
Speaker 4: the years, right, but as you mentioned in the earlier phases,
Speaker 4: is one I would say one of the biggest things
Speaker 4: we learned was when something is working, don't change that.
Speaker 4: So and to kind of given an example, we we
Speaker 4: came up with a shirt which at one point was
Speaker 4: one of our biggest shirts, the girls and Sugar.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah remember that, Yeah.
Speaker 4: That was totally different. The whole shirt was the sugar bag.
Speaker 4: You know, we just flicked the whole you know, sugar
Speaker 4: thing and it was working. People were buying, and then
Speaker 4: we just said, all right, for the next collection, give
Speaker 4: them ten new shirts, which ate up all of our budget.
Speaker 4: It's you know, so when people want to know the
Speaker 4: product that was actually selling, you don't have a lot
Speaker 4: I wanted to reproduce that product. So no, we're just
Speaker 4: kind of stuck, or we're not necessarily stuck, but just
Speaker 4: didn't have as much capital to put towards it because
Speaker 4: we just spend it on a ten new products that
Speaker 4: we don't know if people want. So no, we're you know,
Speaker 4: we'll understand a lot more now. Of course when it
Speaker 4: comes to how do we test the product, how do
Speaker 4: we test the market? Oh, you know, a small sumper
Speaker 4: on compared to saying this is what I want, compared
Speaker 4: to what does the people want? You know what I mean?
Speaker 4: So we've matured a lot when it comes to how
Speaker 4: do we choose products? So do we you know, I
Speaker 4: mean test the market compared to just giving you what
Speaker 4: we think we want, because most of the time what
Speaker 4: we what we think the market wants is not necessarily
Speaker 4: what they actually want. And then inside that market there's
Speaker 4: multiple different markets and niches, so it's being able to
Speaker 4: decipher that and differentiate what product comes out for what
Speaker 4: person inside this realm or diaspora of Jamaica and people
Speaker 4: that love this Jamaican culture, because not everybody is gonna
Speaker 4: wear a Galla shirt, not everybody's gonna wear a Simsima shirt,
Speaker 4: you know, I mean there's people within that. So there's
Speaker 4: a lot that you know, we learn over the years,
Speaker 4: but that was one of the earliest lessons that after
Speaker 4: we had a winner, we ultimately spent a lot of
Speaker 4: capital and a bunch of stuff we didn't know if
Speaker 4: they're gonna work, and that stifled growth in at the beginning.
Speaker 1: Got you Okay, that makes sense, And one thing I
Speaker 1: wanted to point out, it's funny you mentioned I think
Speaker 1: you called it like a did you say a lime
Speaker 1: green collar shirt? That was my first purchase from you guys,
Speaker 1: and it said bad girl.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember, I remember.
Speaker 1: Because I remember, like I cut the neck like for
Speaker 1: a V neck because I wanted to like lean off
Speaker 1: my shoulder a little bit. But I remember that was
Speaker 1: my first T shirt long time, Yeah, grandfather, No, but
Speaker 1: I do. I do love that that. You know, it's
Speaker 1: not just a typical red, gold and green. You know,
Speaker 1: the saying is there, but you're changing different colors because
Speaker 1: everyone might not want to wear those colors every time,
Speaker 1: you know. So it's good to have a variety, and
Speaker 1: I think it definitely sets you guys apart from the rest.
Speaker 1: So I love that. Now, before we go any further,
Speaker 1: you guys have said separately in your own ways that
Speaker 1: rep Ja is really about who you are as individal jewels, right,
Speaker 1: Like that's where it came from. It was you didn't
Speaker 1: set out to like create this larger than live fashion brand.
Speaker 1: It's just something that you guys loved and you kind
Speaker 1: of just put it into this clothing brand. So with
Speaker 1: that being said, I have to ask individually if you
Speaker 1: would tell me if you could describe yourself without saying
Speaker 1: where you're from or your name or your job, just
Speaker 1: like who you are as an individual, for our audience,
Speaker 1: so they know the person's behind JA what would you say?
Speaker 1: And I'll start with prince?
Speaker 3: Yes, man, so who are? She says? So who I am?
Speaker 1: I say who you are without your saying your name,
Speaker 1: where you're from, or your job? So who are you
Speaker 1: as a person?
Speaker 3: Ah?
Speaker 1: Man, we get keep here, you know, we get very
Speaker 1: deep here.
Speaker 3: No, that's what I'm saying because for me have so
Speaker 3: many layers man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you're much more than those things. So I'm
Speaker 1: sure you have a lot of adjectives in there.
Speaker 3: So some people call me, are you in the corn?
Speaker 4: Me?
Speaker 3: Because how about?
Speaker 4: How about this approach? How about because sometimes it's usually
Speaker 4: harder when we're talking about ourselves, how about we talk
Speaker 4: about the other person because I might know some strengths
Speaker 4: that Prince Prince might know some stuff that about me
Speaker 4: or whatever.
Speaker 1: So it just kind of gives us an like this, Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: I love that idea. Yes, let's do that. Then switch
Speaker 1: it on.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I think, you know, just going off for
Speaker 4: Prince Princess one of those individuals that's extremely forward thinking,
Speaker 4: where he sees where stuff is going where it needs
Speaker 4: to go, and everybody else is kind of catching up
Speaker 4: later he's also a really like he's a people person.
Speaker 4: So when you put environments that are outside environments that
Speaker 4: are connecting with people, he thrives. He builds great relationships,
Speaker 4: have good relationships with everybody, and you know everybody's is
Speaker 4: considered a friend to a lot of people, you know,
Speaker 4: and people read him, and I wanted the realists do
Speaker 4: the ever meet because it's no if you notice Prince
Speaker 4: New York are strung. People might try it aggressive, but
Speaker 4: it's just him. It's just him ultimately, Like, yo, this
Speaker 4: is him. Might speak aggressive, but you mean good there's
Speaker 4: good intention. It's no ill way and you know what
Speaker 4: I mean. So I think you know all of that
Speaker 4: on top of being creative, forward thinking, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean, the like Prince is a connector. You want
Speaker 4: to read somebody and pretty much have a connection with them,
Speaker 4: like somewhere somehow, even if you didn't know him, of
Speaker 4: a connection with them somewhere somehow, and then read them,
Speaker 4: not just somebody who will say, hey, do this for
Speaker 4: me now, like yo, that's my boy. So yeah, man,
Speaker 4: I think those are some of the good qualities there. Man.
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, perfect, I love that Prince ya.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I know I look at I look at
Speaker 3: all my like more more fiers and matrix. You know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying. That's how that's that's how you are.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 3: It's like I put into words, It's like he's also
Speaker 3: very personal, you know what I mean. He could talk
Speaker 3: to anybody. Obviously, ah my plays the background. I'll be
Speaker 3: trying to force him to come out the shadow sometimes. Man,
Speaker 3: But he's a great personality, very He's also very forward
Speaker 3: taking and creative, you know what I mean. Always this
Speaker 3: man is like has his hand on ten different things
Speaker 3: at one time, so he's capable of managing that man
Speaker 3: always thinking about the next person to put them before
Speaker 3: him sometimes, you know what I mean. So he's always
Speaker 3: he's he's like he's selfless, selfless, yeah, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean. So solid, solid person.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 3: We've known each other since elementary school, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean, and been the same person ever since, no
Speaker 3: change and no switching. This is who he is man.
Speaker 3: And like I said, he's like I said, he's like
Speaker 3: morphins and Professor X is like he tried to he
Speaker 3: tried to unite everybody. And as I'm the as I'm
Speaker 3: the connector, Omar is the bridge. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3: I can bring the people.
Speaker 4: I bring the people.
Speaker 3: Omar builds the bridge to bring everybody together personally, you
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: So yeah, so.
Speaker 6: What the heck?
Speaker 1: I was not prepared for this. I love this. I
Speaker 1: love this honestly, I really love this, and Omar, I
Speaker 1: loved your idea of doing this because I think it's
Speaker 1: so important to have men, especially Jamaica and men exchange
Speaker 1: these words to each other, right, because it's very rare
Speaker 1: that you have lasting friendships these days, especially like genuine friendships,
Speaker 1: and you can hear and how both of you speak
Speaker 1: about each other. Why you're business has lasted so long
Speaker 1: because I'm sure, like with any business, you have up
Speaker 1: and down disagreements, whatever the case may be. But when
Speaker 1: you have a strong foundation in a friendship, I think
Speaker 1: that really helps you know whatever it is that you
Speaker 1: guys are doing together. So yeah, it's it's very evident
Speaker 1: that there's a good foundation for your relationship as friends
Speaker 1: and you know your business for sure for sure.
Speaker 4: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Okay, So now that we got the crying out the way, wipe. Yeah, bad, bad,
Speaker 1: bad thing, you heard, I said.
Speaker 3: Tissues coming.
Speaker 4: From Ellennium, Louis Ranking don't bring no crime business. Don't
Speaker 4: bring no crime business. R A.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that's hilarious. Yeah. So Jamaican culture, right,
Speaker 1: A lot of brands borrow from Jamaican culture, and we're
Speaker 1: saying that kindly when we say borrow, right, but rep
Speaker 1: JA belongs to it in my opinion, So how do
Speaker 1: you navigate that line between authenticity and innovation, especially when
Speaker 1: the mainstream trends are trying to catch up with our culture.
Speaker 4: I think part of it is we're not trying. This
Speaker 4: is us every day. Yeah, that's really like the biggest thing,
Speaker 4: Like this when when when when princes are reason or
Speaker 4: just mem other extension bridgins or whatever, everything we do
Speaker 4: is Jamaica. We're still the music, the part where I
Speaker 4: go to and just kind of add that. We also
Speaker 4: do events outside of rep JA which are like you know, Igloo,
Speaker 4: Atlanta and different things that we're a part of that
Speaker 4: solidify us in the culture. I mean, we're not trying
Speaker 4: to be a part of the culture, you know, so
Speaker 4: it just makes it more organic because without us even trying,
Speaker 4: this is literally like our every day. If we're not,
Speaker 4: even if we weren't doing rep J, we'll be doing
Speaker 4: something Jamaican or trying to give back to Jamaican culture
Speaker 4: somewhere somehow in every aspect of our we we're just
Speaker 4: a part of it.
Speaker 1: That's who you are.
Speaker 3: Hence the name of the brand. REP j represent Jamaica.
Speaker 3: Does it right there, there's no there's nothing to think about.
Speaker 3: It's self explanatory, you know what I mean. And and
Speaker 3: the brand embodies everything. You know, we try to touch
Speaker 3: on everything. Like you said, you have an anti shirt,
Speaker 3: then you have a gallow shirt, and then you have
Speaker 3: a you know, I believe in yourself shirt. So it's
Speaker 3: not like we're just one side and we're literally touching
Speaker 3: on every aspect of Jamaica that everybody loves because you
Speaker 3: just can't leave you just can't focus on uptown and
Speaker 3: forget about downtown exactly I mean.
Speaker 1: And we're you know, al too many one people. That
Speaker 1: is our motto at the end of the day, one
Speaker 1: hundred percent. No, that's so true. And what's about instances
Speaker 1: with just in design in general, where persons like copy
Speaker 1: something you guys do have you guys had situations like
Speaker 1: now Lenthy though, seriously, because to me that's so annoying.
Speaker 6: You know, go ahead, Prince now that's one of the
Speaker 6: things where you learned Like so now, like all right,
Speaker 6: even Virgil came out or a video saying if you're
Speaker 6: not being if you're being copied, that means you made it,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: Obviously if you designed something that's so good that other
Speaker 3: people want to tee it, you know, then you know
Speaker 3: we did our job. Also on the second point that
Speaker 3: is now how we operate, is anything we designed or
Speaker 3: put out there, it's already trademark, so we own to
Speaker 3: intellect your property. Love that and that goes all the
Speaker 3: way back to your questions earlier like what did you
Speaker 3: learn from them till now? And then then that brings
Speaker 3: it back home with that now every thinking about business
Speaker 3: for us, Yeah, yeah, we trademarket.
Speaker 4: Everything literally, so if whatever design you guys, say, Recja
Speaker 4: come up with, we own the IP of it, so
Speaker 4: you know, and that's just protection for us as well
Speaker 4: as anything that we move into and anybody that we
Speaker 4: partner with. We want to make sure that our side
Speaker 4: everything is legally sound. And then you know, we have
Speaker 4: a really good I P. Lawyer as well who you know,
Speaker 4: any anything that come up or whatever the case is
Speaker 4: there there for that if we you know, if we
Speaker 4: do have to move into a situation we have to
Speaker 4: stop somebody. Because we actually did have a situation where
Speaker 4: somebody was bootlegging our anti Badmind shirt and they're selling
Speaker 4: it in store that we forgot, so sell it. Come, come, come,
Speaker 4: Just then they're selling the design in store, and then
Speaker 4: the person that was selling in store and got it
Speaker 4: from someone else that was selling it a true show
Speaker 4: to other people, I said, Joan better like, come on, yeah,
Speaker 4: they were selling that design to multiple other stores and
Speaker 4: this is only one of the store that we found.
Speaker 4: Yeah them right, said them, fully done.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, absolutely so.
Speaker 4: But yeah, so we were able to in that case,
Speaker 4: you know, got our lawyer involved and a lawyer shot
Speaker 4: on both cases, and you know we're able to just
Speaker 4: rectify that issue. But if we never have those things
Speaker 4: in place, we couldn't go to them, I say anything.
Speaker 4: That's why it's very important, very important. It might be expensive,
Speaker 4: because it's definitely expensive. We're not gonna make it seem
Speaker 4: like yo, the stay cheap or whatever, for it's definite expensive.
Speaker 4: But if you believe in something, you have to protecting.
Speaker 4: That's where ownership make a difference. You know what I mean,
Speaker 4: so if you have a protective then you can dictate
Speaker 4: what happens or you can control what happens with that brand.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we even have things trademark that's not even out
Speaker 3: yet because we know eventually we're gonna put them on,
Speaker 3: so we're proactive. Yeah, so before then, that's already done.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean? You surprised how many we
Speaker 3: have and what we have? Right?
Speaker 1: I love that? No, I love that. You have to
Speaker 1: be proactive and hello you guys listening. That means don't
Speaker 1: try to steal the rep j A tissues idea Okay,
Speaker 1: because have their lawyers on retainer.
Speaker 4: Okay, expensive still.
Speaker 1: Okay, Yes, you're concunds a lot better. Shout to mix, Yes,
Speaker 1: shout out to him for sure.
Speaker 4: For sure.
Speaker 1: Love that, love that Okay. So representation right, it's a
Speaker 1: word that we hear often, but it means something different
Speaker 1: when you're the one creating the space for others to
Speaker 1: feel seen. So what does the representation in representing representing
Speaker 1: Jamaica mean to you as Jamaican men, as creatives and
Speaker 1: as entrepreneurs.
Speaker 4: The representation can mean, I mean, if you want to
Speaker 4: sum it up to one word, connection, like you keep
Speaker 4: connected and connected to an island, to a culture, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean, to the heartbeat of everything you
Speaker 4: know that's going on Jamaica and always connected to it.
Speaker 4: And I think Red Jay as an extension me walking
Speaker 4: outside me going places allows me to stay connected no
Speaker 4: matter what, and also then express that to everybody else.
Speaker 4: I'm a Jammay and without shouting it, without screaming it
Speaker 4: with the colors and saying, hey, you can't tell a
Speaker 4: jammiaic and shirt. No, like when you say an anti badmine,
Speaker 4: it said, oh, interesting, anti bad mine, probably a heard
Speaker 4: of that, you know, because nobody is not really a
Speaker 4: bad mind? Are instead of believing yourself, I believe in yourself.
Speaker 4: So just the simple you know spelling instantly know that
Speaker 4: this is a Caribbean, a Jamaican brand. But they keep
Speaker 4: you connected because no matter what, you always want to
Speaker 4: represent where you come from. And most of the time
Speaker 4: people people have them flagging at them car And then
Speaker 4: some people have the boxing glove, and I know where
Speaker 4: that comes from. But some people have the boxing gloves.
Speaker 4: About the boxing gloves and I don't come from it.
Speaker 4: Who have the boxing glove? We're not know for boxing,
Speaker 4: but I.
Speaker 1: Get it right right, right, But somehow it's there. No,
Speaker 1: I'm completely.
Speaker 4: That is an extension of Yeah, that's that keeps them connected.
Speaker 4: That when somebody say so, I think that kind of
Speaker 4: sums up the representation for us. It's just always been
Speaker 4: connected to Jamaica.
Speaker 3: Somehow look at it this so we're like, we're like that,
Speaker 3: we're like the unofficial tourist board.
Speaker 1: Yes, so serious, Yes, yes they need to for sure. No,
Speaker 1: it's true because not only like your brand, but the
Speaker 1: persons that you have wearing your brand right are like
Speaker 1: international stars, so you are it's basically a billboard for Jamaica. Really,
Speaker 1: I mean, sure we're joking, but we're not joking. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that needs to be for sure. Okay, and one last
Speaker 1: question before we ease into our final segment. When someone
Speaker 1: wears a rep JA short shirt or hat or swimsuit,
Speaker 1: what do you hope they feel, not just on the outside,
Speaker 1: but on the inside.
Speaker 3: I would hope that they feel they're proud to represent
Speaker 3: where they're from. You know, that's the whole point of it.
Speaker 3: The whole point is you putting this on, like I said,
Speaker 3: is you're walking billboard and let when you put this on,
Speaker 3: you letting people know this is what I represent and
Speaker 3: this is where I'm from, because you know, Jamaicans is proud, oh,
Speaker 3: very proud.
Speaker 1: Very proud. Yes, we are very proud.
Speaker 3: Yes, they want to let you like, yo, I'm from here,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. So many times like me
Speaker 3: and omar out or people that people stop us be
Speaker 3: like yo, that's y'all. I even met somebody last night.
Speaker 3: I mean, I was like, Yo, you're Jane because I
Speaker 3: had on the shirt. Obviously, we don't put ourselves out
Speaker 3: there too too much, if you if you know, you know,
Speaker 3: so you know. And then as well as when people
Speaker 3: see all these other people wearing it, you know, like
Speaker 3: you said, that's that's that actually represents for realists, like wow, yes,
Speaker 3: it's really a staple, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 3: then when I think about it, like it's only one
Speaker 3: other brand that came before us, But really and truly
Speaker 3: nobody has done what we've had. We have done, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. Sometimes we get jaded. Me and
Speaker 3: all I talk about this all the time. It's like
Speaker 3: when you it goes back to see everything comes back
Speaker 3: full circause when you're in it, you don't see everything
Speaker 3: from the outside. And it's not till you go out
Speaker 3: and about or like we was meeting almost on the
Speaker 3: phone the other day and his friend texted him and
Speaker 3: it was like, Yo, I'm on the plane and I
Speaker 3: see somebody with the anti hoodio on and then they
Speaker 3: come to find that was my friend that was coming
Speaker 3: from the same same place. So it's like we get
Speaker 3: those texts all the time from people like you know,
Speaker 3: I just see somebody in your shirt, or we just
Speaker 3: get random pictures of people the people just DM and
Speaker 3: centering us in and when you see the customers and
Speaker 3: how much they really appreciate the brand, Like you said,
Speaker 3: this business sometimes you just get worn down. You're like, yeah,
Speaker 3: I feel like doing this today or whatever whatever, you
Speaker 3: get that boost a game, like Yo, were really out
Speaker 3: here changing people's lies and changing the course of history
Speaker 3: in the fashion world for Jamaica on this level because
Speaker 3: it's never been done before.
Speaker 1: Before I was about to say, I don't know if
Speaker 1: anyone that's ever done it, So yeah, kudos to you guys.
Speaker 4: I appreciate that. I'm just adding, you know, one of
Speaker 4: the things is like, well, love when others when customers
Speaker 4: like and it might sound like generic in a sense,
Speaker 4: but when a customer actually like messaging and said people
Speaker 4: recognize them inner the shirt and ask them where them
Speaker 4: get it from, Like that feel crazy because now they
Speaker 4: feel good about that. They feel good about their purchase,
Speaker 4: they feel good about the culture that they're apart, they
Speaker 4: feel good about all aspects of that. Because nobody's giving
Speaker 4: you compliments on your Gucci and your lowis. It's just
Speaker 4: it's whatever. If anything, I'm on my bad mind like
Speaker 4: Guccia better. But if my mind say yo, we get
Speaker 4: the antide mind hat that, but no, you feel good
Speaker 4: like yo, general I need another one because you yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4: So all of these things like tie back to the
Speaker 4: whole picture of representation as stay connected, and that's what
Speaker 4: we love. We just love when people actually like get compliments.
Speaker 4: We love going people you know we'red and feel good
Speaker 4: about that because it shows that once again we're doing
Speaker 4: something right, Like we're tapping into an emotion somewhere that
Speaker 4: that's doing what we that the frequency that we intend
Speaker 4: to get out there, it is actually getting there.
Speaker 3: It's a quality. It's a quality conversational piece. Because somebody's
Speaker 3: gonna stop, you're not key words quality because that's our
Speaker 3: that's our number one goal.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 3: We're not We're not out here just trying to take
Speaker 3: people's money. Like you're gonna get your money's worth. So
Speaker 3: when you receive your package, you're gonna be like, wow,
Speaker 3: I see.
Speaker 4: What it is. Now.
Speaker 3: A lot of the times, you know, d MS or
Speaker 3: emails we got in from people saying and this a
Speaker 3: white owned company. It's like because you know the stigma,
Speaker 3: the stigma, it doesn't leg cheap. And our goal is like,
Speaker 3: now we're not modeve like you said. When we started,
Speaker 3: it wasn't know what we were gonna do. But now
Speaker 3: we're like, all right, we have to give the people quality.
Speaker 1: Man, you know what I mean, because that's beautiful.
Speaker 3: It's not about cheapening it out and it's making a dollar.
Speaker 3: It's actually building something that's gonna stand trying to truth.
Speaker 3: So it's like, yeah, this is what we're doing for
Speaker 3: Jamaica for real, you know what I mean. It's bigger
Speaker 3: than being omar, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Right, it's you're you're representing where you're from. And I
Speaker 1: think that's just such a beautiful thing. And I will
Speaker 1: say about the quality. I still have that shirt even
Speaker 1: though I bought it about eleven or twelve years ago
Speaker 1: and big up me for it's still fitting me. But
Speaker 1: I still have that shirt.
Speaker 4: So like, so we need to upgrade the wardrobe. We
Speaker 4: need something. The only reference I come from eleven years ago.
Speaker 4: Something right, it's not the only reference, it's just my
Speaker 4: first one.
Speaker 3: That it's safe.
Speaker 1: That in safe, my first one. I'm showing the quality.
Speaker 1: I'm showing the quality. If I could have a T
Speaker 1: shirt from eleven or twelve years ars ago, that's serious quality.
Speaker 1: What if you guys would like to upgrade my wardrobe?
Speaker 1: I will say, well, I'm.
Speaker 3: Gonna have my people contact your Yes, that.
Speaker 1: Sounds perfect, Yes, that sounds amazing.
Speaker 4: We'll make sure it's a package, upgraded package.
Speaker 1: Yes please please still are small, though still a small
Speaker 1: because you know you're gonna stay slim and trim. But yes. Okay,
Speaker 1: So before we get to our final segment this season,
Speaker 1: I've been allowing my guests to ask me one question.
Speaker 1: And there's two of you, so one question each. So
Speaker 1: is there anything you guys would like to ask me?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Sure?
Speaker 3: Why did you What was the inspiration for you creating
Speaker 3: this podcast? Ah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so everybody asked me that, But I love answering it,
Speaker 1: so no problem. So I went to Harvard for my
Speaker 1: masters and during that time I did a project where
Speaker 1: I focused on Caribbean women in the diaspora and specifically
Speaker 1: violence against Caribbean women and girls. And what I found
Speaker 1: is that a lot of times, even though these Caribbean
Speaker 1: women or Jamaican women or wherever they were from in
Speaker 1: the diaspora moved to America, they took those values or
Speaker 1: lifestyles with them, and so a lot of them ended
Speaker 1: up in situations where they didn't really have control of
Speaker 1: their finances and things of that nature, and they just
Speaker 1: endured a lot of violence.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to build something where initially like women
Speaker 1: can come and just feel empowered and just listen to
Speaker 1: other women have conversations and know that they're not alone
Speaker 1: in their train of thought or their goals or their
Speaker 1: ambition and things like that. And then I opened it
Speaker 1: up to just being persons in the Caribbean diaspora, and
Speaker 1: then I opened it up to just everybody. You know,
Speaker 1: I've had so many different types of people. I had
Speaker 1: who's now my friend, a person from a company called
Speaker 1: Wine Enthusiast. She's Cambodian and she did the same dat
Speaker 1: noasaone safe segment. She has no idea about Patoor or
Speaker 1: anything like that, but she, you know, she adapted to
Speaker 1: my culture. And so what I then, what I've now
Speaker 1: turned it into is a space where all those things
Speaker 1: are still possible. Caribbean women can listen and men can listen,
Speaker 1: and we all talk and have these conversations, but that
Speaker 1: persons that are not within our culture can also listen
Speaker 1: and learn that we're not just what is portrayed in
Speaker 1: the media sometimes which is sometimes negative. That we're very intelligent.
Speaker 1: We have intelligent conversations. We can have, you know, as
Speaker 1: men and women like we're having no we can have
Speaker 1: conversations without putting each other down, that aren't salacious, that
Speaker 1: aren't riddled in gossip, and you know, just a bunch
Speaker 1: of things that unfortunately were sometimes known for you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, There's so much more to our culture.
Speaker 1: Like I've always wish that people would see a Jamaican
Speaker 1: and say, oh my gosh, you're Jamaican. I know you're
Speaker 1: so smart because you guys are always winning the spelling
Speaker 1: bee or you know most of our or vice president
Speaker 1: or you know, congresswoman or something like that is Jamaica.
Speaker 1: So I know you're intelligent, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like they have other things about us, like yes, you
Speaker 1: know we can't get down, we can't dance, we can't
Speaker 1: you know, toucha too on them things, but we can
Speaker 1: also have intelligent conversations. And so that's really the premise
Speaker 1: for it, just to kind of create that safe space
Speaker 1: for people to be able to come. And I also
Speaker 1: really appreciate when people like yourselves, who I don't know,
Speaker 1: really trust me to ask them and talk to them
Speaker 1: about whatever I want. Because if it's your first time
Speaker 1: listening out there to the show, none of my guests
Speaker 1: ever know what I'm asking. I've had, you know, my
Speaker 1: uncles on here. I've had my dad on here. I've
Speaker 1: had Deborah Cox on here. I've had all types of
Speaker 1: people and they've never asked me to tell them the
Speaker 1: questions ahead of time. So I take that trust very seriously.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I love when people just come and enjoy themselves.
Speaker 3: And before all my answer asked this question. Now I
Speaker 3: see what the next sect is, the last segment is about,
Speaker 3: and where it's going and moving. I get it now,
Speaker 3: Oh my.
Speaker 1: Gosh, hilarious. Okay, your turn.
Speaker 4: Thinking outside of the conversation that you have or you know,
Speaker 4: with the bringing awareness, is there any initiatives that you're
Speaker 4: a part of that does provide that support for the
Speaker 4: women that you're that you mentioned, You know.
Speaker 1: What, that's such a good question. So when I was
Speaker 1: doing the project when I was in school, that's something
Speaker 1: that I was looking into. And unfortunately, given like the
Speaker 1: time you have, you know, like it's a semester, so
Speaker 1: the time that I had, there was nothing going on
Speaker 1: that I could be a part of that could culminate
Speaker 1: at the end of my semester, like before I graduated,
Speaker 1: So unfortunately there wasn't. But I wouldn't be opposed to
Speaker 1: doing something like that, you know. Like I had mentioned
Speaker 1: to you guys offline about your Protect Caribbean Women's shirts.
Speaker 1: That's really like what intrigued me. Obviously I've been loyal
Speaker 1: to the brand before that, but I just thought, just
Speaker 1: in line with like I just said, what this podcast
Speaker 1: is about. I think that's so important that two Jamaica
Speaker 1: and men, you know, put a shirt out there like
Speaker 1: that and are pushing that message behind it, because I
Speaker 1: think it says a lot and I think a lot
Speaker 1: of times when we talk about violence against women and girls.
Speaker 1: We often focus on, you know, just the men being
Speaker 1: so angry, but I like to look a little deeper.
Speaker 1: Why are they angry? You know, are some of these
Speaker 1: little boys being raised by mothers that are children as well,
Speaker 1: and so they just they don't know what to do,
Speaker 1: they don't know how to raise them, and then they
Speaker 1: end up angry at women because this woman treated them
Speaker 1: so bad as a child. And there it's just so
Speaker 1: much deeper than that. And so yeah, like I just
Speaker 1: feel like there's there's so much I would love to
Speaker 1: be a part of, and I would be open to
Speaker 1: being a part of, but unfortunately I haven't gotten to
Speaker 1: that place yet.
Speaker 4: Okay, understood, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: So I know only think you know what the last
Speaker 1: segment is, you don't.
Speaker 3: You know, you know, if you're trying to read mix.
Speaker 4: No, I'm not predictable.
Speaker 1: No, you can't predict me. Okay, So for the last segment,
Speaker 1: the actual last segment, guys, not what Prince omar. I'm
Speaker 1: going to ask you rapid fire questions and they're very quick,
Speaker 1: and I want you to answer with the first thing
Speaker 1: that comes to your mind. So one word, one sentence, okay, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: so you each have to. So I guess it's not
Speaker 1: really fair because if the same person goes first, then
Speaker 1: one person has more time, is true?
Speaker 3: True, you might have to you might have to go
Speaker 3: back to the original ending segment.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, you can.
Speaker 3: Reverse.
Speaker 1: No no, no, no, no, no no no reverse all right,
Speaker 1: reverse you guys, just you guys, Just figure it out.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter. So the first question, what's one memory
Speaker 1: from your childhood and your Jamaican household that shaped your worldview?
Speaker 4: All right, so we have to add a little context. Okay,
Speaker 4: both of us left Jamaica very young, right, So I
Speaker 4: left Jamaica when I was it, but grew up everything
Speaker 4: around that has been Jamaica. So no matter what still
Speaker 4: appearance of Jamaica and hostold Jamaic and everything. But if
Speaker 4: you're referencing directly in Jamaica, then I really remember much
Speaker 4: from from like the early early.
Speaker 1: No, it could just be your household doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be literally in Jamaica, just like you said, your Jamaican household.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, I mean Sunday dinner. Yeah, but but but
Speaker 4: not what ship. But I'm talking about like the family
Speaker 4: camaraderie in a sense where you know, everybody get around
Speaker 4: and because that's still like a part of like what
Speaker 4: we do even up to today. Every Sunday we gather
Speaker 4: at my mother house and we all eat, you know,
Speaker 4: on Sunday, So that has still been a part of us,
Speaker 4: like every Sunday, no Sunday, and the good things actually
Speaker 4: live in the same state or we live now, so
Speaker 4: we're able to go over there and eat then my father,
Speaker 4: my moda, my aunt. So I'll still bring that and
Speaker 4: that family time together.
Speaker 1: Oh I love that, beautiful, I love that. Okay.
Speaker 3: I guess for me is the hustle because you know,
Speaker 3: when you when you're like said, when you're around Jamaicans,
Speaker 3: per se things that you deem in your will normal
Speaker 3: to the outside people is not normal. So just work ethic,
Speaker 3: learning how to cook. At a young age, you take
Speaker 3: on that meat out the freezer so oh my gosh, right,
Speaker 3: the right, so all these things you get run through
Speaker 3: the ringer at a young age and you're doing these
Speaker 3: things like like five, six, seven, eight nine, you're like
Speaker 3: why am I doing this? But it's normal. And then
Speaker 3: you go to other people and you're like, wow, you
Speaker 3: don't know how to do that? Yeah, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean, so for me, I look at the hustle
Speaker 3: and there's certain things where you know, you get you're
Speaker 3: forced to mature faster per se in a sense, to
Speaker 3: do certain things, you know what I mean, compared to Yeah,
Speaker 3: without even really realize what's going on. It's just like, yeah,
Speaker 3: just like being in New York and you're riding the
Speaker 3: train at ten years old, that people look at you.
Speaker 3: It's crazy nowadays, like what theen You're on the train
Speaker 3: by himself regularly true.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I always say as Jamaica's were born as adults
Speaker 1: for sure. Literally, if you had to no, let me
Speaker 1: phrase that differently. If rej A was a song, what
Speaker 1: would it be?
Speaker 4: Hmm hmm. Interesting. That's too hard because there's too many
Speaker 4: songs because you have because we love you have culture. Yeah,
Speaker 4: you know, you have your mama chewing them, you have
Speaker 4: you have your upliftment chewing them.
Speaker 1: You know, we have to pick one.
Speaker 4: It's hard because but the thing but that's that's a
Speaker 4: good thing about Regina because it encompasses all aspects of Jamaica.
Speaker 4: It's hard because we have travel, enterityment, dancing, sports, food,
Speaker 4: everything we do with Jamaica culture is in rep j brand.
Speaker 4: So we just say we have a culture song and
Speaker 4: we a we have a shirt. We have a reggae
Speaker 4: is my religion culture song, we have we have the
Speaker 4: Mama Tunic protect urban woman. You know said we have
Speaker 4: Yali song because Mana Galis and the dol come from singing.
Speaker 4: You know, we'll have a shirt, we have a my shirt.
Speaker 4: Once again, that's the biggest, one of biggest students from
Speaker 4: the Girls and Sugar. So it's like it's so many,
Speaker 4: there's so many songs that you can relate the brand
Speaker 4: chance it's not just one but a hard for it
Speaker 4: really hard for which was one? Honestly just instead of
Speaker 4: a song jail, it would be a mix. Yeah, it
Speaker 4: would be a mixed mix mixed.
Speaker 3: I like that.
Speaker 1: I like that, okay. And would it just have reggae
Speaker 1: and dancehall or would it have other genres of music?
Speaker 1: Would you say.
Speaker 4: Primarily reggae, dancer, reggae, d you know, with my entity
Speaker 4: and some later but you know right, no, reggae, dancer.
Speaker 1: Reaga and dance Okay, that's fair. You know what, Omar,
Speaker 1: I might just have to have you as a co
Speaker 1: host because the way you're switching up these questions.
Speaker 4: I like it.
Speaker 1: It's turning out good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, is mopus? I told you, yes, you did.
Speaker 1: You did, and you tried to make it seem like
Speaker 1: it was you, but it's really him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's how we did.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 3: Got a plan, play the fool to catch the wise.
Speaker 1: Yes, play fool to catch wise. That is so true. Okay,
Speaker 1: So if you remember the beginning, one of the dat
Speaker 1: noosaunds safe was that you wanted some tea and five
Speaker 1: million dollars. So if you got that five million dollars
Speaker 1: and you can travel anywhere in the world, where would
Speaker 1: you go? All expense paid on you, obviously, because you
Speaker 1: have five million dollars, But where would you go?
Speaker 3: I'm going to I'm going to Jamaica. The reason no, no,
Speaker 3: I forg no, I'm.
Speaker 1: Going to have to hear Jamaica. I have to hear
Speaker 1: why Jamaica. I love Jamaica to death, obviously, but yes, please.
Speaker 3: If I have five billion cash right in my hand,
Speaker 3: I'm going to Jamaica and I'm gonna build something there
Speaker 3: to reinvest into the economy.
Speaker 1: Oh see, Prince get deep. I think vacation and.
Speaker 3: I've been I've been here, I've been on those places already.
Speaker 3: So for me, So for me, I'm gonna take some
Speaker 3: of that money and I'm gonna build infrastructure and opportunities.
Speaker 3: That's that's that's what I would do, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean. Obviously I'm gonna keep something, you know, I'm
Speaker 3: gonna keep it real, but I'm gonna build something like
Speaker 3: a place where people can that's gonna stimulate the economy
Speaker 3: and not like a club or some some that the
Speaker 3: youths can go and learn certain things like you know,
Speaker 3: I mean designing and screen printing and production and manufacturing
Speaker 3: things of that nature that Jamaica doesn't have it that
Speaker 3: that could work for them. And because like I said,
Speaker 3: Jamaica's biggest export is entertainment and you know, and which
Speaker 3: brings which brings tourism, you know what I mean, So
Speaker 3: just other places like.
Speaker 1: The biggest export for sure.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because we don't we don't own anything anymore. Everything
Speaker 3: that we had we sold to whoever. So Jamaica really
Speaker 3: own that's the only thing we own it. Even with that,
Speaker 3: we don't know how to properly nurture because people come there.
Speaker 3: People fly from all over the world from Europe learning
Speaker 3: dancing and they dip, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 3: still like they're not nurturing the course on me. I'm
Speaker 3: just like, all right, what can I build here? Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's gonna make Jamaica a force to wear. Not only
Speaker 3: we have the entertainment and culture side, but now we
Speaker 3: have an economical impact that we could build something to
Speaker 3: make money to where we can produce. We can produce things,
Speaker 3: produce things here on the island. That especially now we're
Speaker 3: China and Taris and now we can produce it in Jamaica.
Speaker 3: You know, I means closer.
Speaker 4: To give you a little context of why prints mind
Speaker 4: frame along those lines. These are the conversations that we
Speaker 4: have on a regular right. So so when somebody be like,
Speaker 4: all right, what do you guys, what would you guys want?
Speaker 4: In that context material things? Is not like at the
Speaker 4: top like we're not we really don't care about that.
Speaker 4: We're understanding care about you know, the traveling and the
Speaker 4: big cars and this because we understand their temporary that's
Speaker 4: not something that's going to create that impact. So you know,
Speaker 4: so just giving alical context, these are like whatevery deal.
Speaker 4: And as you mentioned we talked about earlier regarding your
Speaker 4: circle and who you're with and just where you are
Speaker 4: at a certain point in life. Everybody around us from Webrergine, Leon,
Speaker 4: Robregi and Chris. You know what I mean, These are
Speaker 4: maland these are people that our circle. These are the
Speaker 4: conversations that we have daily and weekly money and so
Speaker 4: so none of us in our group are on Yoda.
Speaker 4: Were ready to forget Mexico this and be a gallant No,
Speaker 4: that's not what we talk about. No. Our thing is
Speaker 4: what can we create? How can we build? What we building?
Speaker 4: What would I do? How do we do this? Like
Speaker 4: you know what I mean? And what we can create?
Speaker 4: What's the what's the economic impact that we can have collectively?
Speaker 4: How do we you know what I mean? So because
Speaker 4: we understand and this podcast is of course shorter, but
Speaker 4: when I get into the AI component, when I get
Speaker 4: into you know, financial components. So these are all conversations
Speaker 4: that we have an investing and things that we talk
Speaker 4: about production. These are our stuff that we that we
Speaker 4: talked about. So that's why when the context of whole
Speaker 4: Prince answer was perfect, because that's us truly, you know
Speaker 4: what I mean?
Speaker 6: So I love that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Rej, this is the first extension of what we
Speaker 3: want to do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that. Love that. Okay, A couple more.
Speaker 1: One artist named one artist living or dead that you
Speaker 1: would love to see in a rep J a T
Speaker 1: shirt hat, anything that's.
Speaker 3: Kind of tough. Everybody in it already.
Speaker 1: I did say living or deceased. Yeah, I did say
Speaker 1: living or deceased. So say somebody, Yeah, you could say
Speaker 1: somebody that's no longer here, because everybody living is repinite.
Speaker 6: I like that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I mean everybody said, you know,
Speaker 4: mighty barb or whatever the case is. But I think,
Speaker 4: I think like it's it's a hard right. So this
Speaker 4: is the thing with like Caribbean culture and artists.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm.
Speaker 4: It's more than just get them in a shirt, but
Speaker 4: it's like what can we create together? And when? When? When?
Speaker 4: What can we create together? It's like, all right, I
Speaker 4: can just put I can put violent in a T shirt.
Speaker 4: We can put you know, I do in a shirt,
Speaker 4: which we've been blessed to have them in a shirt,
Speaker 4: and just to the links and everything that that that
Speaker 4: made those opportunities happen. But when you look or come
Speaker 4: out of it, it's not it's just everybody in a
Speaker 4: T shirt, right, So it's cool it's great social proof
Speaker 4: for us that we're able to get them in a shirt.
Speaker 4: But what I loved, let's create a collab T shirt
Speaker 4: together and part of the proceeds we give to x
Speaker 4: y Z. So now we create an initiative that we
Speaker 4: can help something from it. You know what I said,
Speaker 4: that would be more impactful for us to say, let's
Speaker 4: work with whether this artist that you know past or
Speaker 4: you know this artist that currently exists, that that's currently living,
Speaker 4: and how do we create more from this? How do
Speaker 4: we meet this a bigger initiative or do we not
Speaker 4: just take the money and run and gonna smile to
Speaker 4: the bank, because that's not our goal. Our goal is,
Speaker 4: all right, how can we use this to build something?
Speaker 4: Create something? And that's weird the more the mind fram it,
Speaker 4: so when they think about even like an artist. So
Speaker 4: I love for the sup with Sizzla, since always you
Speaker 4: know Ciesla and the kids them is always like a
Speaker 4: great initiative, So that would be dope. I can do
Speaker 4: something with Sisla. You know, Barris, you know, you know
Speaker 4: we love the culture. The culture part hasn't been touched
Speaker 4: fully yet, but there's a lot of artists that as
Speaker 4: long as we can get on the same page and
Speaker 4: it's bigger than the money ting. This is impacting and
Speaker 4: this is all we have to do.
Speaker 3: It and create that.
Speaker 4: Then that would be more of a direction that we
Speaker 4: would would want to go with an artist.
Speaker 3: See now brings us back to the original original.
Speaker 1: Circle circle. Yes, no, I love that. I love when
Speaker 1: it turns out that way. Okay, last two questions. What
Speaker 1: is the most Jamaican parent thing You've caught yourself saying?
Speaker 1: So something that one of your parents used to say
Speaker 1: all the time, and you said it out louder to
Speaker 1: yourself and you're like, wait, am I turning into my
Speaker 1: mom or dad? Like what's happening?
Speaker 4: It says so much. Say even this morning, even this morning,
Speaker 4: my son was coughing and first thing said, can make
Speaker 4: you some tea? So I was like, as soon as
Speaker 4: I could cough, come, I mean I was talking to it.
Speaker 4: Everything tea. I don't even know.
Speaker 1: Everything is just he will curates. What do you mean
Speaker 1: you don't need to know he's gonna carry Oh my gosh, hilarious, Prince.
Speaker 3: I honestly don't know. I'm trying to think. I'm like, no, oh,
Speaker 3: you know, you know what I can't say the thing
Speaker 3: they say. But you start calling people by.
Speaker 1: The wrong name, Oh my god, that's definitely a thing.
Speaker 3: Like, Yo, why did not Stalis person a different name? Yea,
Speaker 3: when I know exactly what their name is.
Speaker 1: No, that's definitely a thing. That's definitely a thing for sure.
Speaker 4: I mean that's still today we're all stuffering from everybody.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that's hilarious. Okay. And finally, when people
Speaker 1: look back at Rep. Ja decades from now, what do
Speaker 1: you want them to say that it stood for.
Speaker 3: Stood for Jamaica. You know what I mean? We literally care,
Speaker 3: we will we wave the flag. Rep. J is a
Speaker 3: national anthem, you know what I mean. It's just we
Speaker 3: wave that flag and banner every day.
Speaker 4: Adding to a princess said just adding to Compe'm just
Speaker 4: interjected to the prince. We have a tagline or said,
Speaker 4: we are Jammyker's clothing brand, so so we want to
Speaker 4: be known as Jammy Aker's clothing. But I want to
Speaker 4: know that your Rep. JAA was able to create a
Speaker 4: lien that created opportunities. So once again I have to
Speaker 4: take it off of us because it's not about us, Like,
Speaker 4: it's not just about us. It's about the people and
Speaker 4: how we can't get you to represent How do you
Speaker 4: feel when you represent? And then when you go into
Speaker 4: the world, how are you representing? And just knowing that
Speaker 4: every day we are wear clothes right everybody, we are
Speaker 4: tamil figure on this and that, and you're representing something
Speaker 4: that you have no connection with. These are either white people,
Speaker 4: some of them are live different lifestyles. Them live different
Speaker 4: stuff that you have no idea what to represent.
Speaker 1: It you don't know the person.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, you don't.
Speaker 4: You don't You're not connected. And I could say like
Speaker 4: a sellular level because as a Jamaican it's in the DNA,
Speaker 4: you know what said. So if we're connected from that level,
Speaker 4: that means the heartbeat, the frequency that we are beat
Speaker 4: and bleed is Jamaica. So you know, just know that
Speaker 4: we can put on for Jamaica ultimately, and then we're
Speaker 4: already on our roadmap. We already know things we want
Speaker 4: to create and the stuff we want to give back
Speaker 4: to the to the to the culture and back to
Speaker 4: the economy. So we don't know that these are offsets
Speaker 4: of our branches. It can look at that will stem
Speaker 4: from what ja was able to do and people going
Speaker 4: to benefit from and that's the goal.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And the thing is where we're representing a country
Speaker 3: compared to that's representing the last name. So we could
Speaker 3: we could have came up with like a cool name,
Speaker 3: like this sounds cool, but yeah, you know, obviously our
Speaker 3: name sounds but you know, there's some brands and they'd
Speaker 3: be like, it's like you said somebody's last name or
Speaker 3: just a funky cool name. And okay, I like that phrase,
Speaker 3: but it doesn't mean anything literally. He said, we're gonna
Speaker 3: call this the country. We're gonna name the brand after
Speaker 3: the country, you know what I mean. So a lot
Speaker 3: of there's a lot of brands. Yeah, a lot of
Speaker 3: brands out there representing a country.
Speaker 1: That's a great point. Yeah for sure. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: Prince and Omar, thank you so much for coming to
Speaker 1: talk the things with me. You have taught us that
Speaker 1: rep JA is more than a brand. It's a movement
Speaker 1: to a statement, and I think it's proof that when
Speaker 1: you build something from the root, you build something that last.
Speaker 1: And I also want to thank you for teaching us
Speaker 1: that you don't have to ask permission to take up space.
Speaker 1: You just have to represent punintended who you are and
Speaker 1: where you're from and what you stand for, and I
Speaker 1: just want to thank you on behalf of all Jamaicans
Speaker 1: and all Caribbean people for building something that doesn't just
Speaker 1: clothe people but connects them to something deeper.
Speaker 4: That sound like we need to put that in our bio.
Speaker 4: We love we love all that, so ill I mean, yeah,
Speaker 4: and I mean I appreciate that, and I appreciate you,
Speaker 4: you know, reaching out and inviting us because that's pretty sure.
Speaker 4: Earlier we are you know, usually be on the scenes
Speaker 4: and yeah, and we don't do a lot of media
Speaker 4: in general, so this was good. This was good for
Speaker 4: us to you know, let the people hear what we
Speaker 4: are about. And you know, we appreciate the platform that
Speaker 4: you're you know, you're providing for us to do that.
Speaker 3: Sure, definitely, definitely I love that.
Speaker 1: And did you guys have anything that you would like
Speaker 1: to share with my audience, like anything you have coming
Speaker 1: up where they can follow you all that good stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they can follow us out at R E. P
Speaker 3: j A on Instagram. Website is just rep j dot com.
Speaker 3: You know, we have a couple of collabs on the way.
Speaker 3: You can't really say too much yet, but that's something
Speaker 3: major happening next month, A couple of things in a
Speaker 3: couple of things in the books. Stay soon, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean. Definitely we'll make sure you get your package.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, please please, Ye.
Speaker 4: You might have to.
Speaker 3: You might have to turn on the camera with your
Speaker 3: next interview so people can see it. You know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Yes, definitely, I have a fashion girl, so trust me,
Speaker 1: I'll make sure to post.
Speaker 2: It and all that.
Speaker 1: Present. Yes, of course, of course, less I can't manage
Speaker 1: you know. Thank you guys so much for coming. I
Speaker 1: really appreciate it.
Speaker 4: There's one just anything anybody, I don't just execute quickly,
Speaker 4: move on it. As you mentioned, you know, taking up. Yes,
Speaker 4: it's okay, just execute quick on anything. Other just work
Speaker 4: on it. Don't wait for anything. It's not going to
Speaker 4: be perfect. You go figure it out, you feel a
Speaker 4: million times, but just keep on work on it because
Speaker 4: we're figuring out every day. Savely perfect.
Speaker 3: That's it.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 1: I love that and I love that. Throughout this episode,
Speaker 1: you guys have really expressed it in your own ways
Speaker 1: that you know you're always learning. Even though you're this
Speaker 1: larger than life brand. Now, you guys are still open
Speaker 1: to learning and I think that's why you'll continue to
Speaker 1: be successful. So yeah, I think that's that's a brilliant
Speaker 1: note to leave on.
Speaker 4: Thank you, thank you, appreciate it once again.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Man, problem