WUWY INTERVIEW: Sowmya Krishnamurthy: Hip-Hop Fashion, Tommy Hilfiger Rumors, Viral Tweets, New Book, + More

Sowmya Krishnamurthy: Hip-Hop Fashion, Tommy Hilfiger Rumors, Viral Tweets, New Book, + More

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
What's up his way up at Angela.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Yeah, I'm here, Jasmine Brand is here, and I'm ready
for this journalism talk. But some Na Krishna Murphy in
the building. I called you Somya k all the time
because that's your name on social media.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
We've known each other a long time since the blog era.

Speaker 4 (00:18):
Anyone remembers, I remember Angela was outside during Yes, that way. Oh,
I think you're still outside, but yeah, she's driven me home.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
A few times.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Yeah, I was outside.

Speaker 4 (00:28):
She's the responsible friend and somehow she would make it
to like an early morning show.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
I don't know how.

Speaker 5 (00:32):
You know how she did that.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Listen, I'm glad I don't have to do that no more.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, but yes, Sony and I have known each other
for quite some time, and what I love is that
you've been so consistent and also evolving with your journalism.
And I'm afraid to say certain things that some people
may play it politically correct.

Speaker 4 (00:51):
Yeah, it's a great thing. When you're not on a
rapper's payroll, you can basically say whatever you want. But
you know, for me, it was important as somebody who's
been in the industry for I'm gonna age myself about
fifteen years now, and being a journalist, you know, start
out with those small little pieces and like a double
excel or the source, and over time you.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
Want to evolve.

Speaker 4 (01:11):
So for me, it was really important with my first book,
Fashion Killer, that I did something that an important story
about hip hop and fashion, that chronicles hip hop in
a way that I think, you know, gives it that
prestige element which I think is so missing sometimes in journalism.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Well, Fashion Killer, and look, I was giving you some
of this Emerson and Prince whiskey to try, yes, and.

Speaker 4 (01:32):
That I drink about twice a year, but I said,
you know what, three times now.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Now it's three times cheers, cheer.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
This is aset Racky's whiskey and only makes sense because
obviously Fashion Killer is an aset Raky song.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
It is.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
It is the famous song where I think he named
checks about like twenty six different labels. And at the
time it was so funny because although aceps from Harlem,
he dressed like he's from Soho, he sounded like he
was from Houston. So he really represented this kind of
like pan regional artist and I think that is also
the story of hip hop and fashion. Of course, it's
a New York story, but there's elements of Atlanta in

(02:08):
LA and Miami, but also Paris.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
When we're talking.

Speaker 4 (02:11):
About like oh, Catoure, it should, of course I go
through the whole, like Coco Chanel story, the car Lagerfell story,
we're talking about street Where, the Japanese story. And to me,
it was just showing hip hop has this global impact
and even though I don't think it always gets the
respect that it deserves Like this is why books like
this I think are important to show people maybe who

(02:32):
don't understand the music or the culture, what the contribution is.

Speaker 5 (02:35):
And that's what I was gonna ask you, why do
you feel like this book is needed now? But I
feel like you kind of explained to just.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Now, Well, you know what's so crazy?

Speaker 4 (02:41):
So you know backwards a few years ago. This was
started as an article for double XL. So a lot
of times books start out as articles, say journalists, right,
so shout outs to anyone out there, who's who's writing
on the music front.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Like Eliah S.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
King.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
I remember she was writing an article. Well I'll talk
about that at to but go ahead.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
Yeah for sure.

Speaker 4 (02:58):
And you know, it was crazy to me that no
one had written a book about hip hop and fashion.
There had been a few memoirs, obviously Dapper Dan's book,
which is amazing.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
There were some you know.

Speaker 5 (03:09):
Coffee table books of coffee table looks.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
People people love pictures. It looks really nice.

Speaker 4 (03:14):
And by the way, Fashion Killer does have forty photos photos.
I got some exclusive photoshots.

Speaker 3 (03:24):
Yeah, I got some really exclusive I mean.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Oh, look at this, dapprit Dan.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
I think you know just and you you also talk
about Tyson Beckford and the impact that he had when
he was the polo Ralph Lauren model.

Speaker 4 (03:37):
And people often forget he was discovered in the pages
of the Source.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
Oh I didn't.

Speaker 5 (03:41):
I didn't realize that.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
When you read my book, you will you will know all.

Speaker 4 (03:45):
And you know, I think it's one of those things
where even for myself, I felt like I knew everything.
But as I was doing the research, even I learned
things like whoa Tyson was discovered by the source, like
he's a truly hip hop model.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
He said he used to have a gun in his
backpack at all times, and they used to call him
by two guns.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
I believe so, yeah, he I believe so.

Speaker 4 (04:04):
I believe so allegedly, and he used to run with
you know, like the Low Lives, so that if anyone
from New York remembers the Low Lives who used to
boost basically Ralph Lauren. But there was you know, so
many like different stories from you know, Tupac walking the
Versace Show right before he passed away, Biggie being the
first rapper to wear Babe. I'm sorry, Soldier Boy, it

(04:26):
was not you. I'm sorry, Little Way and it was
not you. It's between Biggie and the Beastie Boys. And
after all my research, I'm gonna give it to Biggie
because he there's a great story and I actually have
the picture in the book. Right before he passed, he
had done a photo shoot and the photographer Sean Mortensen
was like, Hey, I know this guy Nigo, and he
has a brand called Babe.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
Can you put on this hoodie?

Speaker 4 (04:48):
It was too small for Biggie, so he draped it
over him almost like a cape, so it looks like
he's wearing it almost like a blazer. Sean takes the
picture and sends it to Nego and apparently Biggie was
so excited he wanted to get Bape in his sizes
because they just didn't make it in the big size,
But sadly he passed.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
Away before that happened.

Speaker 4 (05:07):
So so many of these iconic artists that we know
them for one thing, we don't realize they were so
instrumental in the world of fashion.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
And I remember you also in the book talked about
how when the Roots did the song what they Do, Yeah,
it was personally offended because that song What they Do
was all about how people in the industry really front
and were certain things and super commercialism.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (05:28):
I interviewed Questlove and he talked about that. At that time.
You got to remember the backpackers were on one side
and then sort of like the blank Ghetto fabulous era
rappers were on another side, and there was a lot
of you know, back and forth. That's a great video.
It's one of my favorite videos. The Roots What they Do,
but talking to somebody like a Questlove or a pharaohmonche
getting their perspective because they were seeing, Okay, you don't

(05:51):
got to worry about fashion because no one's looking at you.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
But many of them wanted to dress nice.

Speaker 4 (05:55):
Some of them did try to get stylists or they
wanted to look nice. So there's a lot of just
great history, great stories, and it's like a good fifty
year retrospective from nineteen seventy three to twenty twenty three.
So if you know absolutely nothing about hip hop and fashion,
you will read it and become like a professor level.
I guarantee it's PhD level. And if you know a

(06:16):
little bit, I think you're just gonna get so much
more from these colorful stories, these vibrant moments. You know,
even something like the Tommy Hill figure rumor back in
the nineties.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
Remember that, I remember what day?

Speaker 5 (06:27):
What was the rumor?

Speaker 4 (06:27):
So I remembered this day. It's so clear, and I
write about it in the book. I was in middle school.
My best friend at the time was a huge Tommy
Hill figure person, and she pulls me the side. Mind you,
we're in middle school, we're kids.

Speaker 5 (06:39):
I couldn't afford Tommy Hill figure when I was younger.

Speaker 4 (06:41):
Me either, So I about that too, I do. I
did get a bootleg Tommy Hill figure. His name was misspelled,
but it was written in cursive so you couldn't tell.

Speaker 3 (06:50):
It was like extra letters.

Speaker 4 (06:52):
Yeah, I couldn't afford any of this stuff either, But
you know, the rumor was that Tommy had gone on
Oprah and essentially said things that were InCred blue, racist
and problematic, how he didn't want black people down here everybody.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
They kind it kind of ruined the brand.

Speaker 4 (07:08):
It one thousand percent of fact of the brand. So
I interviewed Tommy Hill figure, his brother Andy Hill figure.

Speaker 3 (07:14):
That rumor was alive. It was complete fake news.

Speaker 4 (07:17):
They did a whole investigation about it, and they traced
it back to a college campus. I think it was
just some kid making up a rumor. Remember these are
the early days of the internet message boards. I mean
there's still no fact checking, you know, thirty years later,
but there.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Was even less fact checking.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
But he couldn't go on social media and be like
I never said that, truly, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:36):
And what's crazy.

Speaker 4 (07:36):
He ended up doing Oprah Leyears later and they both
sat there and Oprah's like, this never happened.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
To this day, as I'm doing.

Speaker 4 (07:43):
Press for this book, it bugs people out, like, oh wait,
I gave up all my Tommy Hill figure for no reason.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
But I'd be wearing that now. Yeah, go bring it
back from the archives.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
I wonder why at that time he wasn't vocal, like
more vocal in saying that that wasn't true and.

Speaker 5 (07:58):
Did he maybe he wasn't away until later like they
were aware, and in fact there were news articles and
like legitimate newspapers that did discredit it.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
So but I feel like he should have been really
loud about how that wasn't because you remember Aliyah, and you
talk about Aliyah and he loved and Aliyah was the
kind of face of Tommy Hill Figure at the time.

Speaker 4 (08:19):
Yeah, And you know, I think, and I don't know
what they're sort of pr strategy. Remember this is the
nineties for all we know. Maybe a publicist said, look,
if you bring more attention to it, it's just the
rumors never gonna die. The optics aren't great, just focus
on design and clothes. Now fast forward all his years later,
Tommy Hill Figure is still very successful. I would argue
it's one of the most successful American heritage brands.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
That we have.

Speaker 4 (08:42):
It's like Ralph Laura and Tommy Hill Figure, Calvin Klein DBF,
there's a handful of them. But we just reminds us
of when the brand is a namesake brand, as the designer,
your reputation matters. It isn't like a Nike or Adidas,
where most of us don't know the face of who's
behind that if it's like a ship now the Jasmine brand.

(09:04):
So there's there's a fake, you know, rumor about you,
and now you have so many opportunities to have your
social media platform. There's so many more media platforms. But
I agree with you. I'm actually surprised that Tommy didn't
go more in the offensive, but maybe he was advised
not to.

Speaker 5 (09:18):
And asoday, though when I found out it wasn't true,
I always thought until just now you guys talked about it,
I thought it was true.

Speaker 4 (09:23):
And tomorrow Ja's going to be wearing red, white and blue.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
Right, and rach Hill isn't that his son?

Speaker 4 (09:30):
Yeah, so he was trying to be a rapper. Funny enough,
I think about the time Angela, you and I met
during the blog era. I remember that he was, you know,
sort of circulating. Yeah, I don't think how much.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
Well listen, and so I appreciate you for clearing that
up for Jazmine. Remember Timberland had a similar issue too, Yeah, yeah, Timberland.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
Timberland did as I talk about.

Speaker 4 (09:51):
So the work Boot Company, when hip hop was really
gravitating towards it, some of the leadership at the time
did sort of ment my hip hop almost like yeah,
you can wear our stuff, we kind of don't want
you to, right, So that really happened, yes, But but
concurrently they would also do like ad buys in the source,
so with a little bit of time, money, but you

(10:13):
don't want us to, which I think is still a
problem to this day. I mean, you look at someone
like a dapper dance. So much of his comeback was
because of what happened with Gucci and one of his
designs essentially being copied and pasted on the runway what
he had created for Olympian Diane Dixon, and it was
only because of social media.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
So everybody was like you saw that design, yeah, directly
from Dapa down and you know, interestingly enough, Treval and
Dow he did the Gucci ghost line, and the reason
he got that was because he was doing like these
kind of bootleg Gucci and he thought they were going
to be mad, like don't do that, but instead they
were like, let's do a line around this.

Speaker 4 (10:51):
And it's hard, right because I understand for a brand
as well, you want to protect your brand. You don't
want other people taking your logo, taking your designs and
making money the off it, and especially if it's not regulated.
You don't know about quality control, customer service, all of
those things. But I do think Dapper Dan specifically, who
was known for these like knockoffs, and what ended up
happening was, you know, back in the day Fendy. He

(11:13):
had multiple raids by luxury lines and Fendy was kind
of the final nail in the coffin. Funny enough, the
lawyer for Fendy was Sonya Sotomayor, who's out a Supreme Court.
Oh yeah, and she, according to Dapper Dance, she actually
complimented his knockoffs in the process of taking him down.

Speaker 5 (11:32):
I remember, and he talks about it in his book, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (11:34):
He does, which is a great book by the way.
But again it just shows how for so long hip
hop was the outsider. Then it was Seymour as a
consumer like, yeah, we'll let you buy, but you got
to buy off the rack. So even the story I
talk about Rockaware, the inception of jay Z and Dame
Dash's fashion line, they wanted to get and I interviewed
Dame for this. They wanted to get a deal with Iceberg.

(11:55):
So if anyone remembers the nineties, Iceberg.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
Was it like they brought it back too.

Speaker 4 (11:59):
They did bring it back and it was a line
that I would says analogous to like you know Gucci
or Louis Vatan and hip hop back then, back then,
Calm down, and I mean she's working on her time warsrope,
So that's stuff going on on the side.

Speaker 3 (12:13):
Rod. Yeah, she's trying to catch up from the nineties.

Speaker 4 (12:16):
Yes, she will be wearing clothes from the nineties tomorrow
and she now she now knows she can. But you know,
according to Dame, him and Jay like, you know, we're
talking to Iceberg like, hey, Ge has name dropped you
in all these records. Can we do something together? And
according to Damon, they said, yeah, you can go to
the sample sale and go buy some stuff. And you know, Dame,
all he needs is that battery in his back. Okay,

(12:38):
bet So you don't want to work with us, We're
not only going to start a line, it's going to be.

Speaker 3 (12:43):
More successful than yours.

Speaker 4 (12:44):
And with Rock Aware, they were so brilliant because they
had almost like vertical integration. We make the clothes that
were gonna put it on the wrappers and if ve
music videos became just like four minute commercials for the line.
They're gonna wear it on their album cover. Again, that's
just free advertising. They're gonna wear in the movies that
we make. Like they were hitting so many cultural touch
points and made rock aware more relevant than Iceberg. Right,

(13:06):
But a lot of those things came from rejection, and
it's crazy to think about, Like imagine turning down jay
Z and we're talking.

Speaker 5 (13:14):
This is hilarious Volume one.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
That's very arrogant of them, but.

Speaker 4 (13:18):
It's also very common in the music business. Like people
forget j Z couldn't get a record deal. That's why
they started Rockefeller.

Speaker 3 (13:25):
And now looking back, so many people will take credit
for it. But what is that saying? Like success has.

Speaker 4 (13:30):
Many fathers, but like failure is an orphan, Like no
one wants to claim the failure. And you see that
time and again, whether it be in hip hop or
in fashion.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
I remember when Rockefeller was first kicking off and the
song Dead Presidents Too, Yeah, that was actually on the
Battle of the Beats Andy Martinez.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
Wow members.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
She used to do that on High ninety seven and
it would win, like and then it would retire if
you won the whole Yeah, And so that really kind
of like kicked things off.

Speaker 1 (14:00):
Yeah, I feel like in New York.

Speaker 3 (14:01):
Yeah, but that's that's thing.

Speaker 4 (14:02):
So many of these like icons now really had to
struggle for either acceptance or for somebody to believe in them,
to invest in them. And I think it still does
happen in creative fields because most people aren't inherently risk takers.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
And you know what else I was going to say,
aside from fashion, another business that they had Damon had
had a venture into at that time was Vaka.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
Remember he had the Armadale.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
That's a whole different field, especially back then.

Speaker 4 (14:29):
And I believe Armadale if I'm right, Armadale. So also
quick other story, I'm currently working on the Rockefeller book I.

Speaker 3 (14:37):
Was about to bring.

Speaker 4 (14:39):
Yeah, yeah, So you know with Armadale, I believe that
was named after like a Scottish castle, and that was
more like Biggs's sort of like baby.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
Was the vodka.

Speaker 4 (14:52):
But that was something about Rockefeller, like they wanted all
aspects of lifestyle. Because if we're influencing people, people want
to look like us, talk like us, party like us.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
Why aren't we making money?

Speaker 4 (15:03):
And I think that goes back to the founding of
the label, essentially being like hustlers and strang guys, and
the way that your mind is wired is just very different.

Speaker 5 (15:11):
It seems very parallel to puffy to puff. Well he
was trying to do yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
I mean but you know what, even let's flash back
before that Wo Say Wear Yeah, and remember they had
to do it so and this was a funny story.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
But I remember when they did that Wu Wear song.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
Remember Rizid did the Wuo Wear song and that was
for a soundtrack and they gave him money to do
a song and he basically did a Wo Wear ad.

Speaker 3 (15:35):
I love it. It's and Fubu during the gap ad
he's shouting out crazy yeah.

Speaker 4 (15:44):
And I talk about that as well, where you know,
even sometimes it's using sort of kind of this uh
you know, back dooring into the situation where okay, like
Fubu is not going to get the national ad campaign,
so let's kind of do a workaround. So there's a
lot of that, even someone like a Carl Kanat, so
Carl Kanai, April Walker, cross Color, some of like the
original successful hip hop lines. So I interviewed Carl, he

(16:07):
gave a great story when he wanted Tupac to be
the face of Carl Kanai and you know, he said
he went to like I think it was like the
SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills. He said Pac was on
his laptop typing away something. It wasn't laptop, it was
a computer. Yeah, I mean, I mean Tupac was from
the future.

Speaker 5 (16:24):
He's also kind of live still, people say allegedly.

Speaker 4 (16:27):
Allegedly, so he's working on a movie script. Who knows
what that script was. And Carl essentially asked Pac like, hey,
would you, you know, be the face of my line.
Pok's like yeah, of course. So Carl's getting really nervous,
like how much are you are you going to charge me?
And according to him, Pok's like, nothing, I don't charge
my peopil anything.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
Gotta love it.

Speaker 4 (16:45):
And then Pok became the face as well as creative
design that iconic Carl with him sitting on the basketball rim,
it's very kind of above the rim.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
She's in the book.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
Yeah, listen, I had on a car Kanai T shirt hoodie,
longsleeve T shirt hoodie in my license picture back then
when I got I had any I'll never forget that.

Speaker 3 (17:06):
It was huge.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
I think it was a large and I was like
eighty pounds.

Speaker 3 (17:09):
Oh that was perfect.

Speaker 4 (17:10):
That was A great part about that era didn't matter
if you ate carbs that day, everyone just looked because
everything And you talk.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
About that in books when it comes to women in fashion, right,
how there was a time when the baggy.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
Clothes MC light, you know, that's what we wore.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
But then, uh, there was a bit of a pushback
on that when we saw Little Kim and Foxy Brown
and everybody else come out after that.

Speaker 5 (17:33):
Yet they start they showed their body more, things were
more fitted.

Speaker 3 (17:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (17:36):
So it's interesting because I think at the beginning, for
so many women in hip hop, and in some ways
it still exists, they want to be respected by the
guys and as women. It's like, focus on my rhymes,
focus on me as an artist, not sort of sexualizing me.
And that's what you saw, whether it was EMC Light,
I would even say Queen Latifa to a certain extent,

(17:57):
but it started getting sex year.

Speaker 3 (17:58):
I would say, like a Salt and Peppa.

Speaker 4 (18:00):
Right, they were very body like the body suit, you know,
like push it like they were.

Speaker 3 (18:06):
You know, there's really not a lot of subtlety. Well
still it still is very.

Speaker 4 (18:11):
Sexual, but I think when you get to sort of
the Little Kim Foxy era, all of a sudden, women
were saying that we are sexual beings. We want to
have sex the same way men do. We're going to
rap about it, talk about it, live this lifestyle, and
fast forward all these years later. I think you see
that in hip hop even now, and I think a
lot of women do feel pressure to look a certain way.

(18:33):
They want to dress in a way that sort of
satisfies what a man's going to find attractive. And my
thing is like, be yourself. If that's you and that
makes you feel confident and outgoing, that's awesome. But I
think so many artists you see nowadays it's almost like
wearing a mask or wearing a costume, like, I don't
think that's you.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
You know, it's interesting because we were talking about this earlier,
right with Scarlet Yeah, and then you know, she did
this song in the video and she's like and we're
not used to seeing her like that, and people were like,
the label wants.

Speaker 4 (19:01):
You to do that.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
She's like, no, I wanted to do that, and I
wanted to And then Glorilla just recently posted herself right
with her shirt off and right, and then like, when
is the label making you do that?

Speaker 3 (19:12):
She wants to show off.

Speaker 5 (19:15):
That's essentially what she said. But I want to ask
you who are some of the up and coming artists
that you think are going to be on the verge of,
you know, fashion that we should kind of be checking
for that are not people that.

Speaker 4 (19:28):
We know like real I think what's hard now is
a lot of what used to make fashion I think
so exciting was there were regional differences, so people had
their own signature.

Speaker 3 (19:40):
Because you know, I grew up in the Midwest. I
didn't know what people were wearing.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
A New York can talk about where Kalamazoo.

Speaker 4 (19:45):
If you are a Yankees fan, Darren Jeter, we went
to the same high school many years apart, many years apart.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
The Calamazoo story.

Speaker 4 (19:54):
When we're yes and we're about an owl from Grand Rapids,
we're demarges from how.

Speaker 5 (19:59):
Far are you from the That's right, like two and
a half out of all two if you're dry fast,
out of all of Michigan. You think Detroit has the
best fashion if you like gators, if you like very flashy.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
Yeah, my one pet jacket to bush Man from Detroit.
He gave me a Lion's pell giant.

Speaker 3 (20:16):
For me growing up on New York hip hop.

Speaker 4 (20:18):
I was just obsessed with the way guys from New
York dress, like to me, guys from Harlem are still
like the hut.

Speaker 5 (20:22):
Well, I was gonna say, I read that you say
that Harlem people, people from Harlem are the best dress
in New York.

Speaker 4 (20:28):
Yeah, I was interview Magazine interviewed me and they were like, which,
you know, who are the best dressed people? I just
have like a soft spot, like in my heart. I
always tell this to people. I can only date you
if you were at the tunnel in ninety.

Speaker 3 (20:39):
Eight, And that is such a loaded statement. Well, so whoever.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
Did that big story on the tunnel. I was with
her while she was going to the tunnel and hopefully interviews.
We were actually got to be in the booth during
all that time, so we were good in the booth,
and the booth is elevated so you could watch and
I saw so many many things while I was up
in that booth looking down and seeing what people were doing.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
I was like, this is wild.

Speaker 4 (21:05):
But as a kid growing up, like to me, that
was just iconic, Like I wish I were ten years
older so I could just go, you know and shout.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
Into Jessica Rosenbloom because Tres Just Entertainment was she used
to love me, and so they put me on the list.
Every I never had to wait online, and I was
in college and I could like go in the back
door and go in, not wait online, and everybody there.
And I run into people to this day, like security

(21:33):
who used to work at the tunnel, Like I remember
you from the tunnel because I really used to be
there every single week, Amado sur oh boy, but I
mean iconic nice there like method Man and Redman.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
I think that that night DMX.

Speaker 2 (21:51):
DMX Yeah in the tunnel, you know, there were so
many Master Flux. Every single artist inside for Sounds would
be there too, you know.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
And the Street Team. That's when street teams are really big.

Speaker 4 (22:01):
I started my career as a unpaid internet bad boy
in street team promotions.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
Oh oh yeah, since you brought a bad boy. I know,
Daddy want to bring this up because you put out
a tweet and people were.

Speaker 3 (22:13):
I'm always tweeting and people are yelling at me. I
love it.

Speaker 5 (22:16):
You mentioned that you worked there before and you had
never when when Puffy was married I'm not married, was
dating cast that you had never saw anything?

Speaker 1 (22:23):
You know, alarming, and people were upset. They were like,
why was he even write this at all?

Speaker 4 (22:27):
Because I think and again, the problem with social media
is there's zero nuance, and it's whatever you put out
there and how it's opened interpretation.

Speaker 3 (22:35):
And for me and I did a follow up tweet
to explain that.

Speaker 5 (22:38):
We didn't say that one. We didn't see follow Yeah, no, no,
nobody ever.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
I just want to explain it.

Speaker 4 (22:42):
But the reason I said that is because I'll be honest,
I've had a lot of conversations behind the scenes with
people in the industry, very powerful people when the allegations
against Puff first happened. And this isn't just Puffy, it's
even other people, whether it's R. Kelly, you know, a
variety people, Russell Simmons Oftentimes, especially you know, men in
the industry, will say, well, I never saw it, and
because I didn't see it, it didn't happen. Even when

(23:05):
I speak to some women, that's the mentality, Well, I
knew that person and they were nice to me, so
there's no way they can be a monster. And the
reason I said that, and I said it in the tweet,
just because I didn't see it. We still must listen
to alleged victims. It's not about your personal experience, and
we can't view especially serious allegations through just what you

(23:27):
experience because people have multiple sides, and how somebody acts
at work, let's say, in a board meeting, is very
different how they act with the romantic partner. Now sometimes
that is consistent, where they're just a terrible person all around,
but usually people have different masks.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
And I do think one reason.

Speaker 4 (23:44):
That we haven't seen a me too reckoning and hip hop,
there's a lot of reasons. I don't think the show
is long enough to go into the whole dissertation. So
many people their first response is, well, I didn't see it.
I didn't experience it, so yeah, maybe she yeah, maybe,
or maybe she's looking for money.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
That's the first thing that people think too. Yeah, they
think because I will say and I always say this
to people. I know, people who have been awful to me,
they've been great to other people.

Speaker 4 (24:08):
And vice versa. I know, yeah, though I've had amazing experiences.
I might even speak to another journalist. The way that
person treats a male journalist is different than a female journalist.
You know, where were they kind of on the pecking
order at what time in their career did you see them?
So I think that's so important. It doesn't just matter
your personal experience with an individual. You have to still

(24:31):
let alleged victims tell their story.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
How do you handle that when somebody was let's say,
somebody was great to you, but they've been awful to
other people?

Speaker 3 (24:41):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (24:41):
Right?

Speaker 2 (24:42):
How do you then treat that person? Is it just
based off of how they treated you? Or is it
like I can't really be around that anymore because I
know what they're capable of.

Speaker 4 (24:52):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I think it's very difficult
if there's actual allegations or there is something where it's
publicly been discussed. I think that's one thing versus behind
closed doors because and I'm not I'm sure you've experienced
this as well. I've spoken to women who say so
and so did this to me, or so and so
made me uncomfortable, but I'm not ready.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
To come forward, right, And that's definitely and for us.

Speaker 4 (25:14):
I don't think that's my place then to tell their
story because that's you know, as a as a victim,
you have the right to enunciate that as much or
as little as you want. Because I don't know where
you are and your healing journey. But I do think
that you know, we all kind of know behind the scenes,
who's sort of a nightmare to work with, who's unethical,
who might be a creepazoid. So personally, I mean, and

(25:37):
I'm very kind of lucky in this place in my career.
I just try to like distance myself as much as possible.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
But Simmons with saying how people get so mad every
time somebody comes to visit him and Bali and every
time he does post, you know that somebody's there with him.

Speaker 4 (25:55):
Whatever has happened, always in very strange positions, but you
you know, But it's also tricky to write what is
the line between an allegation versus a conviction?

Speaker 3 (26:05):
How do you deal with gossip?

Speaker 4 (26:06):
Because an allegation is one thing, But do we then
have to be sort of the jury trial jury executioner,
Like there has to be a conviction.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
But I don't know, even if there's not a conviction,
that doesn't mean it didn't happen to And even if
there's a conviction, that doesn't mean it it's just uh
gray area.

Speaker 5 (26:25):
But it's also when when there's like multiple victims, multiple
alleged victims kind of like, yeah, everyone.

Speaker 4 (26:31):
To me, I look at a pattern of behavior, and
but I also, you know, I don't believe in council culture.
I think that's something that's a misnomer and you can't
cancel it. I don't think it really happens anyway, and
it doesn't happen. I don't accountability just in jazz.

Speaker 3 (26:49):
Now he's doing great.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
I actually had on a time he'll figure sweatsuit during
the lip service tour, but I know he never really
said that.

Speaker 3 (26:56):
See, there you go.

Speaker 4 (26:58):
But I think it's also hard because you know, now
there is this expectation, Okay, if everyone feels a certain way,
then there needs to be kind of like a monolith.

Speaker 3 (27:06):
And that's just not how it is.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
And people have to understand how difficult that is. Somya.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
Have you ever had an experience and you don't have
to name a name that you felt like, is this
a therapy session? No, I'm just wondering because Chary Lee
Rapp was up here and she talks about it in
her book, you know, a situation, but she's still never
named that person. And you would think, in the position
that she's in now, at some point you know, you
feel like, Okay, I'm saving a time, but it's still hard, yeah,
to be able to do that.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
And I'm just.

Speaker 2 (27:31):
Wondering, like, for you, being in the position that you're in,
you've interviewed a ton of people. Have you ever had
something that you felt like inappropriate or somebody you just
don't mess with because it's something they did?

Speaker 3 (27:41):
You know what your persons?

Speaker 4 (27:42):
I think as women in hip hop, and I mean,
you know, there's well, Angela, there's not a lot of us.
And the era I started in was the put your
head down and do the work area. No one wants
to see you cry. No one cares.

Speaker 3 (27:54):
Literally, they'd say, if you want to cry, go to
the bathroom.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
Career and I said it radio. They told me, if
you're too sensitive, don't do this.

Speaker 4 (28:00):
Yeah, And it's really hard for women because you know,
for me, it was very important. I don't want to
just cover female artists because sometimes they'll do that to women. Okay,
you talk to the female rappers, or you cover R
and B because that's like girl music. But no, I
grew up listening to Nas and Big and Mob Deep
and Premiere and those were the people I wanted to interview.
But That also meant that sometimes you had to, you know,

(28:23):
have this kind of shield around you, be very cognizant
how you move, Like it's funny even you know, we're
having a drink here. For probably the first like ten
twelve years of my career, when I was offered like
alcohol or you know, other treats, I would always say
no because I wanted them to know no, No, I'm
about my business right or of an artist is like, hey,

(28:44):
what are you doing afterwards? Oh, I'm going home to
transcribe this interview, Like I don't want to hang out.
I don't want you to think we're dating. I don't
want your number.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
But that's so unfair because men can hang out, and
it's like if you do, you're like, okay, yeah, let's
go eat.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
And I mean, I'm not trying to let's go hang out.
But sometimes that that's where the deals are made.

Speaker 4 (29:01):
Deals are made, so to the strip club, they're made
after hours, they're made.

Speaker 3 (29:06):
At the golf court or even in the studio. And
it's funny you say that.

Speaker 4 (29:09):
I was talking to executive not too long ago, very
high level male executive at a major label, and I
was trying to explain to him that the studio is
not a welcoming place for women. And I know as
someone who's been in the studio, I'm usually there to
interview an artist or observe the minute you go in.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
As a woman.

Speaker 4 (29:26):
It's different now because you know, obviously we're grown. But
when you're first starting out, the first assumption is, well,
who are you sleeping with here? Because there's no reason
you should be here now. Mind you, this person could
be a journalist, an executive, an engineer, producer. The first is, oh, well,
who are you here with? And if you're like nobody, great,
then they're going to hit on you.

Speaker 3 (29:45):
And that's just what it is.

Speaker 4 (29:46):
And it's funny because I was telling this executive he
was truly shocked. He's liked, well, I don't understand, why
don't women just show up? I said, no, No, the
sessions at four am it's all men drinking, smoking, exactly,
and I think for women, and it's really really tough.
Of course, like all women, I've had those experiences, whether
it's like sexual harassment, you know, being so called blackballed

(30:09):
if you don't go out with somebody. And this isn't
just artists. I've had editors like people on assuming the
minute you don't want to date them. All those all
those opportunities.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
Are gone, right, and you know you definitely are early on.
I remember somebody in the business told me one time,
just get used to it. It's part of what it
is as a woman in this business. Guys are going
to hit on you and things that you just got
to be and in a weird way.

Speaker 3 (30:33):
Sometimes they'll say, well, that's a compliment. They think you're
pretty versus what's the converse like?

Speaker 4 (30:39):
And you know, it's it's hard too because even now,
and going back to what you mentioned about Cheryl, you
don't get an award for calling people out.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
Yeah, like, no matter.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
I understand how difficult it is. That's why I'm always
like when people are like, why did they wait? Why
didn't they say something? If that was me, I would
have did this, because it is a hard thing to
actually have to sit down and be like, Okay, if
I say this, people aren't gonna believe me. And then
how do I come.

Speaker 4 (31:05):
What time was my career? What were you saying, Angela?
Were you sort of implying that maybe you were interested
or actually, you know, I heard the Jasmine dates a
lot of men in the industry, so she's kind of fast, right,
you know, but.

Speaker 3 (31:17):
They will they will look at that like they.

Speaker 4 (31:18):
Will go through your personal life every single For the
longest time, I wouldn't even talk to guys in the industry, like, no,
I'm only talking to people who work in like finance
or something, because I don't want any man to think, oh,
you're in this room because.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
I brought her here. Oh you're his girlfriend. Yeah, And
men don't realize.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
Cause that can affect to your career. You can't even
be in certain places or a network the way that
a man can.

Speaker 3 (31:42):
I'll never forget.

Speaker 4 (31:43):
This is like when I was first starting out, and
you know, funny enough, even at Bad Boy, and there
was another female intern and I do think she started
dating one of the guys there, and it was somewhat
age appropriate, I guess, because you know, we're all like
over eighteen. Actually I think she was over twenty one,
and he hold everyone yeah, and I think he embellished
the story. It got so bad one day she just

(32:04):
stopped coming to work. And I remember one of my
boss he's still coming, He's he's still coming, and he was,
by the way, like totally enapt. I don't know how
he got a paycheck. He must have known where you know,
the bodies were buried. But fast forward, I remember my
male boss saying, don't be like one of those girls.
So what does that mean that we can't have a
personal life like you? Almost again, you're either hyper sexualized

(32:26):
as a woman or you have to be like the
virgin good girl.

Speaker 3 (32:29):
You can't just be a huge I don't know.

Speaker 2 (32:31):
What advice you give, because women ask me all the
time in this business, how do you navigate when guys
are tinn of days too.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
I told somebody the other day, and I don't know
if this is great advice or not.

Speaker 3 (32:41):
You know, but I was an arranged marriage. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
But and you know, for the longest two when I
first started, I always said, I did you.

Speaker 3 (32:47):
Ever do that?

Speaker 4 (32:48):
Like lie about the fakes? That always he lives another country,
You're never going to see him, And there's like I
used to be a fake ring. Sometimes you ever did
the fake ring?

Speaker 2 (32:59):
But I told her, I said, look, all I can
say is this I get inevitably there are times that
you haven't attacked into somebody really liked them, just start
off as friends.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
And I've alway you know somebody really well.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
Before you make a move, and you know, just because
you don't want to have those regrets. And I get
that things happen you're single, he's single or whatever, but
just don't.

Speaker 3 (33:20):
We're around each other all the time, like, no matter what,
you're most likely and that's in an airy yeah, who
they work with, Like that was what the show The
Office was predicated on.

Speaker 4 (33:29):
But I also tell when young women ask me as well,
and I would even say this to young men. Just
be very clear, like how this could affect your career,
because if this is not the love of your life,
you are going to marry them. Just if worst case
this leads to you being fired, are you okay? Like
is it worth it to kind of risk it all
for this person? And I think when you're first starting

(33:51):
out in any industry, but especially this industry, you have
to have some stripes on your arm before Like now
it's different. It's the way we can move, we can
date whoever, you know. Although now, when like the young
artists try to hit on me, I was like, no, no,
where's your dad? I don't want to talk to you,
but I'm sure your dad is at the tunnel in
ninety eight. Yeah, but that's from a place of privilege

(34:11):
power because no one can, you know, affect your bag,
no one can affect your reputation. But when you're first
starting out, I think even in twenty twenty four as
a woman, they will find ways to discredit you.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (34:23):
Oh, we've got to focus on the work and be
so buttoned up there because I've even when I've interviewed artists,
like they'll show me their phones like, yeah, I know her,
Oh no, I don't want to see her naked, Oh my.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
God, Like and you know, I do a show called
lip Service, and obviously that show is all about sex,
so people feel more free. I don't mind people telling
me stuff, you know, and I do feel like on
that show. Even though it's fun, it's intimate, it's not
like I don't think it's too crazy where you feel
like and you should never feel like that, like being
inappropriate with somebody, and.

Speaker 4 (34:53):
You should always do at the end of day, it's
still work. Now the blinds do get blurred and we
are having a good time, and I get it. It's music,
it's the entertainment industry. But if someone is like your boss,
then they need to act like a boss, right, Like,
you shouldn't be hitting on your subordinate. You know, if
you're an unpaid intern, no one knows you, you have
no career, so that person now can control your career.

(35:15):
Like does it mean it to you? And maybe that
is the love of your life and you're ready to
risk it all and that's great. Most of the time,
it's not.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
I always say, you know, these guys try to talk
to me, They trying to talk to thirty other people,
and so don't think is the.

Speaker 4 (35:29):
Worse though, when you meet like your childhood crushes and
they're all such a letdown. I didn't read a lot
of the guys who they were on my wall in
the nineties because I used to rip out Word Up
magazine from the library.

Speaker 3 (35:41):
So sorry to the library if I used to rip
it out of the library.

Speaker 1 (35:44):
But we're gonna we'll have to talk about that. Yeah,
I think the New.

Speaker 4 (35:46):
York I think the Statute of Limitations is up. But
meeting some of your heroes and it's like, wow, I
would never date you, and I like that in my
mind you were like this pristine, perfect person and in
reality you're terrible.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
Now listen, all right, I want to move on and
talk about this next book please, because you're you're doing
a book about Rockefeller Yeah. Oh, and so is everybody
on boord to do this, Like I know you've spoken
to Damon in this book.

Speaker 3 (36:13):
I mean all the founders know about it and that knows.

Speaker 1 (36:15):
Okay, so BIG's jay.

Speaker 4 (36:16):
Z and Cream nos Jay's team knows, Dame's team knows.
And for me, it's not like I believe in transparency.
It's not like some sort of gotcha moment. But for
me again, after Fashion Killow, which is the first hip
hop fashion anthology, I realize like for my next book,
I want to tell these important hip hop stories and
tell them in a way that's not being told. And

(36:39):
no matter what, a book is forever like a podcast,
interview whatever, like that's you know, ephemeral, but like a
book is forever, and it also gives it a certain credibility.

Speaker 3 (36:49):
So in my mind, like Rockefella is like the hip
hop blue chip company, I want this book to be
taught in like college courses, like what can we learn
from them? And use a business classes. So that's the
way I'm framing it. So yes, of course it's like
the history the stories, but I want it through that lens,
not just like gossip or he said.

Speaker 4 (37:08):
He said, because at that point it's there's nothing much
there of kind of you know of haft. But right
now I just needed to be in the research. It
was great interroom people like Ski Beats who made Dead
Presidents right or even like the original like original Flava
Future Sound. They were signed to Dame before jay Z
Clark Kent like all of these amazing people.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
Remember they had the twin brothers, Christian Diamonds in the.

Speaker 4 (37:34):
Yes, if anyone can find Christian or a mill because
I found I found numbers for them, but they're not responding,
So if anyone out there can find them for me
would be great.

Speaker 5 (37:42):
What about that female rapper that was signed?

Speaker 3 (37:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (37:46):
Yeah, okay, what's the time?

Speaker 3 (37:48):
All money is legal?

Speaker 4 (37:50):
All money major coin, Major Coins, a group that didn't
really exist.

Speaker 5 (37:54):
But yeah, what are we thinking that next? I know
we're promoting this, but when do we think in a timeline?

Speaker 3 (37:58):
You sound like my editor.

Speaker 4 (38:00):
Ideally I wanted to drop in twenty twenty six because
it's the thirtieth anniversary.

Speaker 3 (38:04):
You're reasonable doubt that makes sense. Yeah, And as you know,
a book writing takes so long.

Speaker 5 (38:08):
It feels like.

Speaker 2 (38:11):
Words guys, and you're somebody yourself, because some people don't
write their books themselves.

Speaker 4 (38:15):
Yeah, most celebrities have what we call it ghost writer,
so that's when they pay an actual writer to, you know,
do the writing. So yeah, so when you actually are
writing the book yourself and doing the interviews and doing
the research, it's a marathon.

Speaker 3 (38:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (38:28):
Yeah, it would you consider after that maybe doing a
West West coast sort of maybe like an ice cube
or like that.

Speaker 3 (38:36):
She's like, let me get through. I'm just trying to
get through that.

Speaker 5 (38:40):
For that, I do like that.

Speaker 4 (38:41):
But I think for me, what's important the literary space
and even in just the other projects I want to
do in the future, whether it's documentaries, film, TV, podcasting,
et cetera. I want to just tell hip hop stories
in an elevated way.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
Can you see Fashion Killer being a documentary on I mean, I.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
Am signed a CIA and there are conversations happening.

Speaker 1 (39:01):
Because I could see that being a documentary.

Speaker 5 (39:03):
That would be us have to be I mean, you
know it has to be.

Speaker 2 (39:07):
I love debating about Coco Chanel and that whole story
because you know, I love fashion. You can't tell because
every day I wear sweats but I like to look
at things. I like to go into stores and like,
I'm always trying to see what people are wearing. It's
interesting to me, you know, And so I would love
to visually see some of this come to life because
I learned a lot great just from reading Fashion Killers.

Speaker 3 (39:28):
So I learned a lot is.

Speaker 4 (39:29):
A great endorsement. Maybe they should put that on the
paper A lot. The paperback drops on September. I'll pull
that back to the promo. I feel like I'm a
rapper promoting a mixtape.

Speaker 3 (39:39):
That is really what you are selling.

Speaker 4 (39:41):
A book is, and it's funny at my book release
last year, So the hardcover came out in October, but
it's available Amazon, Barnes and Noble independent bookstores, and paperback,
which is a little cheaper and also easier to put
in your bag, comes out on September third. But there
was a time I was literally just selling copies out
of like my Louis Vaiton bag, Like I really felt
like I was jay Z out of the trunk, like guys,

(40:03):
I'm cash money, Yeah, that's what it.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
Will definitely purchase that at the trunk at the Louis
Vaiton bag.

Speaker 4 (40:09):
Yeah, But I mean, I think too because so many,
you know, very few journalists who come from hip hop
get to write books because the literary world is still
very academic, it's very male, it's very white. So I
think that's another area that I just want to create
those inroads to show people like, no, your voices are
important and we need to have these stories or it's

(40:31):
going to be the same like rapper memoir, like done to.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
Death, you know right, listen big Daddy Kane.

Speaker 4 (40:38):
But yes, I interviewed Kane and I had to ask
him about the famous Madonna photo shoot where Graham and
Naomi Campbell and he started laughing. And first of all,
Caine is still smooth operator all those years later. I'm like,
you know what, I don't need you to go on
lip service. I can already tell what happened.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
Yeah, we know what it is.

Speaker 3 (40:56):
Yeah, there's a lot going on there.

Speaker 2 (40:59):
But I remember because that time he was on Cold,
Chilling right, and Jiz was also on Coach Genius Genius,
and so they really wanted to fashion him. Really to
think about those outfits. It was like the silky pajamas suits. Yeah,
he had that song come do Me, and it was
not his style at all had a chance to do me.

Speaker 3 (41:19):
So much for subtlety. But yes, women are loose, but yes,
come do me, come do me. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (41:25):
And also why video and everything women? What do you
mean come to your house?

Speaker 3 (41:30):
And then do you like? There's so many levels that yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:35):
And then it was it was Prince Racquem Yeah, and
he had so many ladies.

Speaker 3 (41:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (41:41):
And that's the thing too, is even just how fashion
helps certain artists become.

Speaker 3 (41:46):
Like these sax symbols. Look at a heavy D, look
at a biggie.

Speaker 4 (41:50):
These guys were now like, okay, we put Big and
Versace and now all of a sudden, he's all these women.

Speaker 2 (41:55):
And that was fly though, it was very fly, and
he made it really popular to just you ain't got
to be the handsomest man, the most fit man. Yeah,
but women still with flacking to him. Yeah, and that
was the whole perception.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
So he got that.

Speaker 4 (42:09):
Yeah, and I think again for him again according to Puff,
like because he wore Versace, Biggie now wanted to wear that.
But Big had to always get custom because they weren't
making clothes in his size, so it's always like kind
of stitched together.

Speaker 5 (42:22):
And they're not necessarily doing it now either, but also people.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
Like that because it's custom yeah, and one of one.

Speaker 4 (42:29):
Oh yeah always, which goes back to Cain because I
remember Kane telling me he had multiple tailors. He's like, oh,
you're like nobody, not just dapper Dan, Yeah, multiple tailors,
because he's like, if I'm on stage, no one in
the audience should be wearing what I'm.

Speaker 1 (42:41):
Can you imagine how horrifying?

Speaker 3 (42:44):
Like wait, how want Taylor too?

Speaker 4 (42:47):
Yeah, that's funny because I did a panel a lot
too long ago and Jim Jones said the same thing
that this is during the dipset era. He's like, I
went to a club in New York wearing a jersey.
If someone else had it, I took my shirt off.
Whereas now it's almost a compliment. Oh we address like
you know, going back to your question about who are
the sort of young fashionistas, it's so hard because everyone's
on Instagram, everyone's wearing a marry, everyone knows the same

(43:10):
style list. So I do think people like a factor yeah,
or fast fashion where we all are wearing the same.

Speaker 5 (43:16):
Which wasn't around when we were younger. Yeah, or not
in this the same sense, No, and just.

Speaker 3 (43:21):
The idea of trends being so fast.

Speaker 4 (43:24):
So I think it's someone like a Tyler the Creator,
Like I love his style evolution and now you know
he's working with LV and things like that. But from
odd future to where he is now, I just think
he makes a lot of really interesting choices. But it
is hard for artists, Like how do you stand out
in this marketplace where everybody could go to Instagram, everyone
can travel to the same boutique. Like I remember I

(43:46):
push a tea for the book and he was like,
yo when we had to go to Japan to go
see Nego to get Babe, Like that was the plug.
Now everyone just goes online, so you know there's a
star right here, there's a story, right.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
I remember he had he put music and everything. That's
how ingrained he was, you know in the culture.

Speaker 4 (44:04):
Yeah, so I think, you know, it's it's hard now,
But I do think that I would challenge artists, whether
it's musically or sort of esthetically, you have to do
something different, likes it has to be you. But I
just sometimes feel I see artists and it's like you're
not wearing the clothes.

Speaker 3 (44:19):
The clothes are wearing it.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
Yeah, because things like everybody has that Gucci sweatsuit. Everybody
has that, you know. That makes it really hard.

Speaker 4 (44:26):
So and it's also a lot of pressure on artists.
Imagine if you're Wound Tang or you know Nas or
you know Biggie. In the beginning, you could just dress
regular because you were a regular person. Now you signed
a deal off one song, how are you head to toll?
And Gucci was painingfress And I do think that also
has a disconnect with fans because sometimes I look at music.

(44:47):
You already have the Ferrari and you're on a private
jet and your head to toe Gucci. Who is this
supposed to be inspiring?

Speaker 3 (44:54):
Right? That's that's me. I'm a bit of a purist,
as you can tell when it comes to music.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
Well, but listen, fashion killer is available now. We've been
trying to make sure we got this to happen. I
am so appreciative and so may. I feel like I
haven't seen your face in person and so long. So
I'm so happy to see Somya Kaka Somya Krishna murthy
great good, I did it right, you did it good? Okay,
all right?

Speaker 1 (45:17):
Perfect? Well, thank you so much, and you got to
come back up and see us more. Frequently. Anytime fashion
killer is out right now, it's way up.