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What does the future of the music industry look like ? With Vega
122 Plays2 years ago
Meet with Vega, his avatar also is a clonex, famous NFT collection by the RTFKT brand which got acquired by Nike.
Vega is what you can call a pionneer. In this talk, you'll learn about how he is trailblazing the future of the music industry...
Find Vega here:
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Transcript
Introduction and Collaboration
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello.
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, Vega.
00:00:01
Speaker
Nice to see you.
00:00:02
Speaker
Nice to have you here.
00:00:03
Speaker
What's going on, man?
00:00:11
Speaker
Yeah, I just want to start off with expressing gratitude because you're way ahead.
00:00:18
Speaker
You're well into building your own brand and you've done such
00:00:22
Speaker
a lot of cool stuff and you didn't even question it when I, when I asked for you to come on, when, when I, at the moment have like 250 followers or something.
00:00:31
Speaker
And so, yeah, I think it, I want to start with this because I think it says a lot about you for, for people to carve out the time to do stuff with other people when they don't need to.
00:00:42
Speaker
That's a really cool sign.
00:00:43
Speaker
So thanks, man.
00:00:44
Speaker
To be honest, like followers don't mean anything to me.
00:00:49
Speaker
You never know, you know, who,
00:00:51
Speaker
who's who or who knows who, or if, you know, just people are just good people in general.
00:00:56
Speaker
Um, my biggest thing that I tell people is that like, uh, I think people will get more in life if they just continuously, um, really treat people the way they like to be treated.
00:01:08
Speaker
And I don't like it when people think they're like too good or, you know, they can't make time because, uh, they don't know who I am or whatever else.
00:01:16
Speaker
So I'll never, I'll never try to make anybody feel like that either.
00:01:19
Speaker
It's so cool.
00:01:20
Speaker
And,
00:01:21
Speaker
It is cool.
00:01:21
Speaker
And I think I've seen you mention things along those lines, which probably led me to be comfortable asking you.
00:01:28
Speaker
But it's one thing to say it and a whole other thing to do it because you've obviously got a lot going on.
00:01:33
Speaker
And so like you actually put your money where your mouth is.
00:01:36
Speaker
And that's that's really awesome to see.
Vega's Artistic Identity and Influences
00:01:38
Speaker
Word is important because if people can't trust what you say, then like.
00:01:43
Speaker
Like literally all of my podcasts.
00:01:46
Speaker
you know, money that pays my bills is generated by what I say.
00:01:49
Speaker
Because, you know, like music, music is just your word, you know, music is music and partnerships and things like that.
00:01:57
Speaker
You know, making commercials is literally just your word and your presence.
00:02:00
Speaker
And if you don't have that, or if I don't have that, then I have really nothing.
00:02:04
Speaker
And I guess I'm in the same boat right now as well.
00:02:07
Speaker
Um, man, can you tell me about how did you get here?
00:02:11
Speaker
Cause your, your whole persona is made off of such a, of a bunch of cool stuff.
00:02:17
Speaker
There's anime sprinkled here and there, there's gaming, and then there's obviously the wrapping and then there's web three.
00:02:24
Speaker
And one of the things that I really find really cool about you is that like, for example, I don't know how much that is true.
00:02:31
Speaker
Cause I don't know his whole story, but when I, when I look at spotty, for example, I see someone who,
00:02:37
Speaker
I don't know what he was like before Web3, but he seems to have just like absolutely blown up and where it has been a huge, a huge like step forward for him.
00:02:50
Speaker
And for you, it seems to have been a whole other thing.
00:02:55
Speaker
I feel like you were the artist and then everything kind of came together with Web3 as well.
00:03:01
Speaker
And I would love to hear a little bit of your backstory of how you got here.
00:03:05
Speaker
Yeah, I think Web3 is one of those things that some people like myself, we've been waiting for forever because it's just like, you know, an accumulation of all our interests.
00:03:17
Speaker
Growing up, you know, some people have parents that like, I don't want to say like force, but like, you know, strictly encourage them to do things.
00:03:26
Speaker
Like there are some parents that are like, hey, like you're going to be a professional athlete.
00:03:29
Speaker
You're going to be a basketball player, you're going to be a football player.
00:03:32
Speaker
My parents were
00:03:33
Speaker
whether it was just because we didn't have the luxury for it or not, they kind of just was like, Hey man, you know, try out a bunch of things, do, do all kinds of stuff, whatever you feel like, man.
00:03:47
Speaker
I mean, you know, they, they did want me to be in the medical field.
00:03:50
Speaker
So I'll say that, but like for the most part, just like interests and hobbies, I was always free to explore things.
00:03:57
Speaker
And so, um, just always being a creative person,
00:04:00
Speaker
got into things that like touched on creativity, like, you know, gaming, like anime, like, uh, you know, music, all those things, you know, come from, from some source of creativity.
00:04:11
Speaker
So I've been through, uh, several, uh, skills and talents and hobbies and things and whatever I can tie together, you know, I do.
00:04:22
Speaker
Um, but I just kind of, you know, landed on,
00:04:24
Speaker
music and it's something that I love to do.
00:04:27
Speaker
So, you know, that's, that's why I'm doing it.
00:04:29
Speaker
And then the rest of the stuff,
00:04:31
Speaker
just fits in because it aligns with that sort of creativity.
00:04:34
Speaker
I can tell.
00:04:35
Speaker
I was actually vibing to your music just before.
00:04:37
Speaker
I thought there couldn't be any better way for me to get prepared and get hyped.
00:04:43
Speaker
And I really like what you're doing.
00:04:45
Speaker
Yeah, thanks.
NFTs and the Future of Music
00:04:47
Speaker
So for me, when I was thinking about this conversation a few days ago, there's two words that came to mind.
00:04:54
Speaker
It was fearless and trailblazer.
00:04:56
Speaker
they just came up naturally.
00:04:58
Speaker
And there's actually quite a lot to unpack because I've been thinking about it.
00:05:02
Speaker
And there are two things that I see that you're doing that are super interesting.
00:05:07
Speaker
One of them is, I think that a lot of what you're doing is going to shape the future of the music industry.
00:05:15
Speaker
And another one is that you are...
00:05:20
Speaker
as close to the perfect example of what it is to leverage IP that has been given to people by a brand through NFTs.
00:05:27
Speaker
Let's start with the first one.
00:05:28
Speaker
I'm willing, I could take the bet with whoever wants to, with whoever feels like it, that what you're doing right now will end up being copied down the line by a bunch of people.
00:05:40
Speaker
I mean, absolutely.
00:05:41
Speaker
Yeah, I just had a dinner about that last night with one of the clones who's like a VC type of investor.
00:05:49
Speaker
this type of virtual idol, uh, is what Asia is calling it is like, it's, it's pretty popular in Asia right now.
00:05:58
Speaker
I was far as like rap music and being in, in other countries or markets is we don't really see it yet for, you know, people in the U S usually it takes somebody making like a ton of money off something for everybody else to be like, Oh, I can do that too.
00:06:16
Speaker
I want to do that too.
00:06:17
Speaker
So
00:06:18
Speaker
when we start to see like successful cases of it, like, absolutely.
00:06:21
Speaker
We'll see a ton of, ton of people doing it, but until then it's just going to be like skeptics and, uh, you know, we'll see how it goes.
00:06:31
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:06:32
Speaker
How do you see the next little while playing out for you in that regard?
00:06:38
Speaker
What's your mindset at right now?
00:06:39
Speaker
Because there's so much uncertainty, like even the whole IP thing with CloneX, for example, with Artifact, there's quite a bit to be a little bit uncertain about.
00:06:51
Speaker
So how do you personally feel about that?
Brand Flexibility and Collaboration
00:06:54
Speaker
I think that everything that I've been doing, just the consistency, it will pay off.
00:06:59
Speaker
As far as the IP stuff with CloneX, I talk to people on the team pretty frequently to make sure I can do what I want to do because that's what I signed up for at the end of the day.
00:07:11
Speaker
A lot of people signed up for the IP rights and the 3D models and doing things like that.
00:07:16
Speaker
So in terms of using it the way that I want to, I feel like I'm not necessarily violating any terms.
00:07:23
Speaker
Um, as of yet, I don't know if there will be revisions to their, their guidelines or licensing or anything else, but the way that I have set up the character of the digital identity, you know, as junior, junior, the way that I've set it up, it's, you know, someone used the term last night, brand agnostic.
00:07:40
Speaker
So we're like, it doesn't matter how the brand does, or if it's one brand or another, but the character of junior is, um,
00:07:48
Speaker
you know, firstly that he's a clone and secondly that he's a robot and, um, that could be replicated.
00:07:56
Speaker
That could be cloned that can look different.
00:07:58
Speaker
It can be upgraded upon.
00:07:59
Speaker
Um, just last night I posted, uh, a variant of junior from the Valhalla brand.
00:08:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:07
Speaker
I love it.
00:08:08
Speaker
I'm fucking jealous of Valhalla.
00:08:10
Speaker
It looks incredible.
00:08:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:13
Speaker
So, you know, that's the, that's the beauty of it is that I didn't,
00:08:17
Speaker
you know, put myself in a box.
00:08:18
Speaker
I didn't, you know, lock myself into something that I would be dependent on.
00:08:22
Speaker
Um, the character is the brand and it's my own thing.
00:08:28
Speaker
You know, I, I use a clone X because I like clone X and I like, uh, where it started and I like the people in it.
00:08:37
Speaker
And what I do, um, with any success will push everybody else forward.
00:08:41
Speaker
And as many friends that I've made, I'd love to see everybody else
00:08:44
Speaker
you know, gain or profit in some capacity from things that I'm able to do.
00:08:48
Speaker
But, um, if things, you know, were to ever just change up or not go so well with clone X, like I'm not, I'm not married to it.
00:08:55
Speaker
And the design of the character is built.
00:08:58
Speaker
to be able to transition whenever I need to.
00:09:01
Speaker
There's also the aspect of Clonex has that virtuous effect that's embedded into it.
00:09:07
Speaker
What you've been doing with, what's his name, Jordan?
00:09:10
Speaker
Yeah, Dom.
00:09:12
Speaker
Dom Jordan, yeah.
00:09:13
Speaker
What you've been doing with him of like,
00:09:16
Speaker
using his skills, mashing it with your storytelling, and then including other people from the Clone X universe.
00:09:25
Speaker
This is what it's all about.
00:09:26
Speaker
And that's why we, it's also part of the reason why I chose Clone X. I love the vibe.
00:09:32
Speaker
I love them.
00:09:33
Speaker
And I love the people that are into it.
00:09:35
Speaker
And you have a very strong brand and you have a bunch of people who have their incentives aligned in.
00:09:43
Speaker
You want to push yourself and
00:09:46
Speaker
you can do that by also pushing others up.
00:09:49
Speaker
And yeah, there's, I think we haven't seen anything when it comes to the, the, the power of the network effect that these brands will have in the future.
00:09:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:59
Speaker
I mean, that's something about me too, is I've, I've always been, you know, very much a person of loyalty and respect for, you know, people that have reciprocated that to me.
00:10:11
Speaker
Anybody that is helping me build things out or,
00:10:16
Speaker
um, you know, like people like Dom, uh, I will make sure when the time comes that they're rewarded for it in, in any capacity that I can.
00:10:27
Speaker
Um, whether that's, you know, like them being involved in, in profits and design on like major partnerships having to do with, let's say like yellow jacket gang, for example.
00:10:39
Speaker
Um, that's something that I, that I really look forward to.
00:10:45
Speaker
with this network of people doing these things, you know, all the creators, it makes a lot more sense for them to align with each other, given a clear and distinct, like, creative direction so that we can build something from the ground up.
00:11:03
Speaker
Otherwise, we are just kind of being used as, like, you know, free marketing with no aim other than to keep creating for this, like,
00:11:13
Speaker
you know, big brand that doesn't even really need us in the first place.
00:11:16
Speaker
You know, there's no real incentive to keep creating for, for artifact.
00:11:21
Speaker
If, you know, they're not saying that they'll eventually like buy a brand or like, um, hand opportunities to a brand or like, you know, pay anybody.
00:11:33
Speaker
But, um, the things that we're doing together, you know, as creatives are really like, uh, from the bottom up.
00:11:41
Speaker
So, um,
00:11:43
Speaker
if it does become profitable, it will actually benefit everybody instead of something already being profitable from the top and then hoping for a crumb of it.
00:11:55
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:11:56
Speaker
That's super interesting because it reminds me of something that I'd forgotten where it kind of is in their promise of being this creator brand.
00:12:06
Speaker
And I've seen it as a promise, but I haven't been a holder for long enough.
00:12:11
Speaker
So maybe I've missed a few things, but do you think it's really embedded into the core identity of Artifact
The New Era of NFT Consumerism
00:12:20
Speaker
yet?
00:12:20
Speaker
How much they should basically be the shepherd that brings us all together into that one direction?
00:12:27
Speaker
I think that NFT brands...
00:12:32
Speaker
are kind of like a new era of, of doing things.
00:12:36
Speaker
And there's like a, a very like, you know, fine line.
00:12:41
Speaker
Um, because at the end of the day, realistically, they don't owe us anything.
00:12:44
Speaker
You know, they can say they don't, they don't owe us anything.
00:12:47
Speaker
Um, you know, they have Nike backing and if, if certain creators were to leave or some other people were to leave, I'm sure they would be replaced by somebody else.
00:12:59
Speaker
Uh, but at the same time,
00:13:00
Speaker
you know, without us, then they're working harder.
00:13:05
Speaker
You know, it would be, it would be harder to meet deadlines or sales goals.
00:13:09
Speaker
I'm sure they have sales goals because of Nike and stuff like that.
00:13:11
Speaker
Uh, it's interesting because before you would have brands or big corporations and it would just be like, you know, marketing, let's generate some sales.
00:13:23
Speaker
And now it's like, Hey, we, you know, have gained from them,
00:13:30
Speaker
And they can also gain from us.
00:13:32
Speaker
And if it isn't handled cordially, then it would go badly for either party.
00:13:39
Speaker
So yeah, they don't really owe us anything, but they would stand to benefit more from working with the people that are helping to make them what they are.
00:13:51
Speaker
I think it's what will differentiate good Web3 brands from incredible people.
00:13:57
Speaker
and legacy Web3 brands.
00:14:00
Speaker
It's those that will really break the barrier between the
00:14:07
Speaker
between community and team and make it a completely virtuous cycle.
00:14:13
Speaker
When you think about, when you have right now almost 10,000 holders for Artifact, if you empower them in a meaningful way to create content, if you use the resources that you have access to to help them in that way, it's infinite power to you.
00:14:31
Speaker
I would say the difficulty is unifying
00:14:35
Speaker
those people, you know, everybody's in it for different reasons.
00:14:38
Speaker
Everybody has different worldviews, political views, different kinds of views on things.
00:14:43
Speaker
Even, you know, something similar to like what I'm doing, it just seems like it would be so easy for 10,000 people to push like an album or a song or a music video.
00:14:56
Speaker
Like when I put it out there, right?
00:14:57
Speaker
Like 10,000 people, even half of that, even maybe like a quarter of that could put something on like a billboard chart.
00:15:03
Speaker
But, you know, here I am X amount of songs later and we're still not on those type of charts.
00:15:10
Speaker
And that's just because a lot of people, they don't see the vision of like synergy.
00:15:16
Speaker
They don't see the vision of like, you know, what it, what it would do to the value of what they have themselves if they increase the value of people in the ecosystem.
00:15:27
Speaker
So working, I mean, having that many holders is like dope, but like unifying them is completely different.
00:15:34
Speaker
different ballgame.
00:15:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:36
Speaker
And it's what you were saying before is very true where they have there between the hammer and the Anvil because they have the community who they don't technically owe anything to, but who feels entitled.
00:15:47
Speaker
And even if they would get replaced, like they have been in the past few weeks, you still want to
00:15:55
Speaker
honor your core holder base, which I do genuinely think Artifact wants to do.
00:16:02
Speaker
And then you have the hammer, which is Nike, which indeed is a big corporation.
00:16:06
Speaker
They didn't buy Artifact out of the love in their heart or not just the love in their heart anyway.
00:16:15
Speaker
And so, yeah, there are goals that need to be achieved.
00:16:18
Speaker
But what you're saying is really interesting because
00:16:25
Speaker
there's, it should be a role on the artifact team.
00:16:27
Speaker
It should even be a whole department of how do we, how do we push our community up and, and out into the world?
00:16:37
Speaker
Well, I think that's the difference, right?
00:16:39
Speaker
Is like, uh, some, some brands now, um, you know, that didn't necessarily take like VC backing or anything like that.
00:16:49
Speaker
They look at it as, okay, um,
00:16:52
Speaker
each one of these creators, each one of these avatars, characters, they are embedded with our IP.
00:16:58
Speaker
And the more places we get them, the more visible we are, the more people we know, it'll generate that way.
00:17:05
Speaker
And that's what would make sense.
00:17:07
Speaker
You see people that are doing things in a brand for your brand, with your brand's logos and symbolism and everything like that.
00:17:14
Speaker
And you would say, oh, I have this connection.
00:17:18
Speaker
Let me put this in here.
00:17:19
Speaker
So that way, like,
00:17:21
Speaker
the collaboration of these things would get way more like millions of eyes on, you know, this, this, uh, logo right here.
00:17:29
Speaker
But since it's, you know, the opposite and they do have the global audience already from Nike, it isn't really about, uh, getting eyes on it because the eyes are already there.
00:17:38
Speaker
It's just about, um, you know, the narrative of, uh, you know, changing the way that consumerism is viewed.
00:17:47
Speaker
Otherwise, um,
00:17:48
Speaker
You know, they wouldn't say like, hey, if you want to commercialize your stuff, just de-brand it.
00:17:52
Speaker
Just take the logos off.
00:17:53
Speaker
Take that off.
00:17:54
Speaker
Like you should want your logo to be everywhere.
00:17:57
Speaker
Like if I'm in a video game, you should want it to be in a video game.
00:18:00
Speaker
You should want it to be in music.
00:18:01
Speaker
You should want it to be in videos.
00:18:03
Speaker
You should want it to be in commercials.
00:18:04
Speaker
But instead, it's working the opposite.
00:18:08
Speaker
And that's odd because when you think about it, brands pay Netflix shows to have their products within it with a logo visible.
00:18:17
Speaker
I wonder where the... I have a law background, so I know that law and legal stuff can be a little bit backwards.
00:18:28
Speaker
But I wonder how it got to that.
00:18:30
Speaker
Because if I were Artifact, I would want you to rock the logo huge on the...
00:18:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:38
Speaker
On your clothes right now.
00:18:40
Speaker
You know, it's just, uh, it's just the way the corporate, you know, corporation goes, I think, you know, the founders, and again, like I have no, uh, no malice or anything towards the brand.
00:18:52
Speaker
I love the brand itself.
00:18:53
Speaker
You know, some of the founders are really along with, but, uh, I think that Nike has a greater involvement than they, uh, would like to be able to tell us.
00:19:05
Speaker
And I think there are a lot of NDAs that prevent them from really talking about it or saying anything.
00:19:11
Speaker
Um, and if, if Nike is seen as, uh, like lenient towards one brand or a particular person or another, then it, uh, messes with the rest of their, um, legal
Nike's Influence on Branding Decisions
00:19:29
Speaker
battles.
00:19:29
Speaker
You know, you see them right now, they're suing Lululemon right now.
00:19:32
Speaker
They just sued, you know, beta nape last week.
00:19:34
Speaker
They're,
00:19:35
Speaker
You know, they sued StockX.
00:19:36
Speaker
They're literally like suing everybody over IP rights.
00:19:40
Speaker
And if they're lenient in one area, then that could be used as like counter argument.
00:19:45
Speaker
And I think that's the issue.
00:19:46
Speaker
That makes a lot of sense.
00:19:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:48
Speaker
That makes a lot of sense.
00:19:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:50
Speaker
It's not easy being in the position that they're in.
00:19:53
Speaker
Like no one on that, across that chain of value.
00:19:58
Speaker
But honestly, I...
00:20:01
Speaker
It's not even hope.
00:20:02
Speaker
I'm very confident in the future of Artifact and CloneX and Nike.
00:20:06
Speaker
I think they have such a huge vision that the bigger the vision, the easier it is to have a few missteps along the way and a few learning experiences.
00:20:20
Speaker
And when you're innovating at the speed that Artifact is doing it in and at the scale that they're doing it in,
00:20:30
Speaker
you're bound to fuck up.
00:20:32
Speaker
It's going to happen.
00:20:34
Speaker
It's going to happen.
00:20:35
Speaker
I mean, yeah, I'm still confident in the things that they do because the future is coming and, you know, you can either be early to it or you can be too late for any real benefit.
00:20:48
Speaker
But all it's going to take is, you know, a company like Apple making, you know, AR and VR,
00:20:56
Speaker
a household item that's affordable and everybody has like, you know, if you look at the sales for, for VR every year, they've increased year over year.
00:21:08
Speaker
Um, once people get more into AR with fashion design and stuff like that, like Apple, um, announced something about a mixed reality headset where it's similar to like VR, but you can actually see through it.
00:21:21
Speaker
And then, you know, the, the glass itself will display,
00:21:25
Speaker
augmented reality things.
00:21:27
Speaker
Um, then you're getting into people wearing them outside their house.
00:21:31
Speaker
You know, you're getting people, uh, using them in public.
00:21:33
Speaker
Kids will be taken into schools.
00:21:34
Speaker
They'll be, um, they'll be reduced to, you know, glasses, which are lightweight and easy to wear.
00:21:42
Speaker
And then you have people, uh, really utilizing like AR wearables in real life, you know, outside of their computer screen.
00:21:52
Speaker
And that's where it will get big, but I'm sure we're still probably like five to seven years out from that.
00:21:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:59
Speaker
It's, it's easy when, when you're in our position where we're down in the trenches trying to build things like you don't know much about me, but I've actually launched myself a web three project under another identity, but I'm just waiting for a few more weeks to, to tie the two together.
00:22:16
Speaker
But like when, when you're down in the trenches, you,
00:22:20
Speaker
And things are moving really fast in crypto, partly or mostly because of the speculative nature of
Innovation and Transparency in NFTs
00:22:28
Speaker
it.
00:22:28
Speaker
You tend to forget that things tend to happen a little bit slower once you get out of the early adopters bubble that we're in.
00:22:39
Speaker
Yeah, there's definitely a lot of pressure on the speed of things in the space, for sure.
00:22:45
Speaker
Yeah, there is.
00:22:45
Speaker
There always has been.
00:22:47
Speaker
But I mean, there are...
00:22:50
Speaker
we've still hit a very interesting point because...
00:22:55
Speaker
Man, the market was really shaken up last year and we're still here and we're still standing at valuations that are really good, which it's not the end will be all of this whole thing, but it's still a very good indication that there are people who have liquidity, who haven't pulled it out and who have been here to support these levels.
00:23:16
Speaker
So there is a future for it and you have use cases that keep bubbling up.
00:23:24
Speaker
Yeah, everywhere.
00:23:25
Speaker
Can you like, can you, how much are you willing to explain behind what the rationale is behind your use of NFTs with your community, with your listeners?
00:23:38
Speaker
What's, what role do they play?
00:23:40
Speaker
How do you see your own personal NFT ecosystem growing around you and the next few years?
00:23:48
Speaker
I have.
00:23:50
Speaker
Made it a point to be you know as transparent as possible about that because again, you know like that's something that we Haven't seen in some places like you know, the lack of transparency is very frustrating for a lot of people Speculation is what makes people angry when it doesn't turn out to be what they thought it would be And if you just let people know what what the deal is ahead of time like They're either gonna make the choice to buy it or they're not and if they do
00:24:16
Speaker
you know, who could be mad about something that you told them exactly what it was.
00:24:21
Speaker
So, you know, a few of the things that I've released already were strictly just for support so I could put money into building things.
00:24:29
Speaker
And I let that be known.
00:24:30
Speaker
You know, I'd say like, hey, there's no real utility behind this NFT.
00:24:34
Speaker
This is just to support the journey.
00:24:36
Speaker
You know, if that's something that you would like to do.
00:24:38
Speaker
And so, you know, people did.
00:24:39
Speaker
That was one of the more popular things that people bought of mine.
00:24:43
Speaker
But aside from that,
00:24:46
Speaker
if I'm not saying this is for support, I don't want to sell anything at all unless it has both an immediate utility and like a future utility on top of that.
00:25:00
Speaker
Because future utility is all speculation.
00:25:03
Speaker
Anything can happen.
00:25:04
Speaker
You know, shit could go south.
00:25:05
Speaker
And then in the future, you're dealing with issues.
00:25:07
Speaker
But if you give somebody a current usage immediately, then
00:25:14
Speaker
It's their choice to make again.
00:25:16
Speaker
So it's about giving people accurate, transparent information so that they can make the best choices for themselves.
00:25:23
Speaker
But my best example of that so far was when I released the features, the 10 NFTs.
00:25:30
Speaker
So you could either buy a song feature from me and you could burn the NFT immediately and we'll make a song together.
00:25:39
Speaker
Or you can keep it for the future, you know, see how the artistry progresses and it may be more valuable.
00:25:47
Speaker
And you can either use it then or you can sell it to somebody else, which has never been done with features before.
00:25:53
Speaker
You could never buy a song feature with resale value in the past.
00:25:58
Speaker
I think I was probably the first person to ever do that.
00:26:01
Speaker
Yeah, you would have been.
00:26:03
Speaker
I actually thought of that on my way to the gym on Monday of, hmm, maybe I should buy one of those right now.
00:26:10
Speaker
Because like I said, I'd buy the Vega coin if it existed because I see what you're doing.
00:26:18
Speaker
I see the hustle.
00:26:19
Speaker
I appreciate the artistry.
00:26:21
Speaker
And I genuinely think that you're going to go places.
00:26:28
Speaker
Do you think this whole...
00:26:32
Speaker
utility for later, speculate on it and you'll see if you're right, is something that we're getting wrong in this industry as a whole?
00:26:40
Speaker
Because it's the meta and it has been since like for the past two or three years for NFTs.
00:26:46
Speaker
I think really that's, you know, all parts of life.
00:26:52
Speaker
I mean, that's what, that's what gambling is.
00:26:54
Speaker
That's what stocks are, you know?
00:26:56
Speaker
So I wouldn't say that we've gotten it wrong.
Crypto Market Dynamics and Strategies
00:26:59
Speaker
It just doesn't help that things are so,
00:27:01
Speaker
accelerated in the space.
00:27:04
Speaker
And with that acceleration, people don't leave any time for growth or building or patience.
00:27:09
Speaker
You know what I mean?
00:27:10
Speaker
Like if you buy a stock, right, you don't think that stock's going to go up next month.
00:27:14
Speaker
I mean, you're holding stocks for years and, you know, the company, the development of the company over time is what you're speculating on.
00:27:23
Speaker
I would say it's fair to speculate on some things, but like the rate that it's being done or the expectancy for the time period of growth,
00:27:32
Speaker
we, you know, people need to chill out on that.
00:27:35
Speaker
Um, you see what, what some projects are doing like, uh, pixel Mon pixel Mon, everybody was like, this is a complete rug.
00:27:45
Speaker
This project is done for, you know, it didn't come out the way people expected it to.
00:27:50
Speaker
And now here we are, you know, like half a year later and they have a pretty good looking game.
00:27:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:56
Speaker
And it's just like, yo, that wasn't even that long of time to, you know,
00:28:00
Speaker
for people to be deciding that this was a rug to them having a decent looking, you know, game.
00:28:06
Speaker
And, um, if they would have just been more patient and, uh, understanding and, uh, you know, had a positive mind about where things could go, then I think the brand itself would have been better overall.
00:28:21
Speaker
And that goes for all brands, you know, even artifact itself.
00:28:24
Speaker
Like there are things that people don't like, but like, you know, give that shit a couple of years.
00:28:31
Speaker
Yeah, it's true.
00:28:33
Speaker
You can't expect everything to moon in a month or two.
00:28:37
Speaker
It's true.
00:28:38
Speaker
I think it also has a lot to do with the fact that a big part of Web3 is decentralizing access to investment opportunity that up until... I think someone... I don't know where I got this information from a few days ago.
00:28:52
Speaker
Up until 2016, I don't think IPOs were available for retail investors until 2016.
00:29:00
Speaker
And now you can get into a token, a project years before anything potentially happens.
00:29:11
Speaker
You don't know, you're not getting a ton of transparency.
00:29:17
Speaker
And with NFTs, it's even more...
00:29:20
Speaker
It's even trickier because you're getting to something that has a narrative, that has storytelling, that carries emotions with them because there's art, there's people, there's stories being told.
00:29:32
Speaker
And so it's really hard as a retail investor who up until a few years ago wasn't even allowed at these stages of a project to now being involved.
00:29:44
Speaker
invested there's there's a lot of learning that's going to need to happen in the next few years in order for this to get better i think yeah i think that's a part of it too is you know people people don't realize and maybe they just don't give it thought or maybe they do give it thought and they just don't care but like everything in sales and everything in a lot of other fields is psychology you know like
00:30:11
Speaker
all the marketing and all that stuff is just a play on how can we get people to react?
00:30:18
Speaker
How can we make, you know, how can this trigger like a response and somebody's like, you know, brain to say, Hey, I want this.
00:30:23
Speaker
I want to be a part of this.
00:30:24
Speaker
I want to do that.
00:30:25
Speaker
I think that there are a lot of brands, um, without realizing that it's like necessarily psychology.
00:30:32
Speaker
I think they are, uh, um,
00:30:36
Speaker
realizing that there is a response that's had and they're, you know, manipulating it and it's not good for everybody.
00:30:45
Speaker
Um, but we got to understand like marketing has been doing this, you know, forever and this is just intensified and like very targeted and very, very like, uh, you know, diehard, like super fan type of psychology and marketing.
00:31:04
Speaker
And it's 95% of the scams you see, they are using this.
00:31:10
Speaker
They understand better than anyone that this is 100% psychology.
00:31:15
Speaker
They know the reassurance.
00:31:17
Speaker
They know what people need to see in order to get things done.
00:31:21
Speaker
There was one that made that...
00:31:23
Speaker
just blew my mind a few months ago.
00:31:25
Speaker
I think it was called Flower Fam and they just had everything right.
00:31:30
Speaker
The website was super clean.
00:31:33
Speaker
It was too clean.
00:31:35
Speaker
You could see that the people who had spent so much time on it had just, they'd spent all of their resources on it.
00:31:43
Speaker
And I'm pretty sure they'd been studying crypto Web3 communities for ages and they had...
00:31:54
Speaker
preceded every single ask and everything that people would come in to expect, they were delivered.
00:32:01
Speaker
And it was just way too perfect for it to be a real, a real project.
00:32:06
Speaker
Because if all of your attention goes, all of your resources go on to marketing, then you're not building anything.
00:32:14
Speaker
And it's, yeah.
00:32:15
Speaker
Oh man, you have to be really smart, but scammers are the smartest people around.
00:32:21
Speaker
I wish they just dedicate the resources and smart.
00:32:23
Speaker
I know right.
00:32:25
Speaker
Probably have something very successful if they didn't, uh,
00:32:28
Speaker
Focus on scamming, I'm sure.
00:32:29
Speaker
They would.
00:32:30
Speaker
They would.
00:32:31
Speaker
But I knew a guy who pulled a few rugs.
00:32:37
Speaker
And I told him, like, I don't understand why you're doing this.
00:32:41
Speaker
And I'm like you in that I'm a builder at heart.
00:32:45
Speaker
Like, I want to build something that is substantial, that is sustainable, that will not just benefit me, but that will benefit the people around me.
Finding Fulfillment and Personal Growth
00:32:57
Speaker
And I fit right in into decentralization and Web3 just like you do.
00:33:02
Speaker
But he was like, yeah, but it's so much easier to launch something than it is to build something.
00:33:08
Speaker
And he's right.
00:33:09
Speaker
I mean, it's easy, right?
00:33:11
Speaker
But at the end of the day, then what?
00:33:15
Speaker
You have a bunch of money and you spend it all.
00:33:17
Speaker
And then how do you feel?
00:33:19
Speaker
How do you feel inside about it?
00:33:21
Speaker
I think people should do things and I do things.
00:33:26
Speaker
because it's fulfilling to do.
00:33:28
Speaker
And, you know, it's like a sense of happiness from within and that's generated by myself that I don't have to rely on or look for like a significant other to make me happy or like, you know, friends or family, I don't have to, you know, drain or absorb happiness from them.
00:33:47
Speaker
When you can find something that is both like fulfilling and makes you happy and then also
00:33:55
Speaker
you know, builds a legacy, then, you know, when you get past all the stuff and you're old or whatever else, I feel like that's something that you can look back on, um, with no regrets about.
00:34:08
Speaker
Cause if he's just like, if you're just a scammer and you're just scamming and you just do it for money and you have a bunch of fun experiences in a row, when that runs out, it runs out.
00:34:15
Speaker
And then what do you have left after that?
00:34:17
Speaker
You have no sense of accomplishment.
00:34:19
Speaker
You're just like, Oh yeah, it was a good run.
00:34:20
Speaker
Well, I had it.
00:34:21
Speaker
Right.
00:34:21
Speaker
I mean, and then what, you know, where's the, where's the legacy in that?
00:34:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:26
Speaker
We're all driven by very different things.
00:34:29
Speaker
How did you, I want to 100% share your perspective on life on that regard.
00:34:35
Speaker
How did you, is that something that was passed on to you by your parents, like through socialization?
00:34:40
Speaker
Or is it something that you had to learn like through life to get to this point where now it's, you feel strongly about this?
00:34:48
Speaker
I think it was a little bit of both.
00:34:50
Speaker
You know, I had pretty good, you know, parenting experience.
00:34:55
Speaker
Um, you know, they did teach me a lot of, you know, stuff about respect and about loyalty and about, uh, you know, doing things because they're the right thing to do.
00:35:05
Speaker
You know, that's, that's something I got from my dad a lot.
00:35:07
Speaker
Um, he, you know, necessarily isn't like one of those people that's like, oh yeah, you know, the law is the law, obey the law.
00:35:16
Speaker
And that's what makes you good.
00:35:17
Speaker
It's just like, Hey man, just do it because it feels right.
00:35:22
Speaker
And not every, not, he's not like a criminal or anything, but I mean, even just like little laws, like, you know, you had to have to have a fishing license to go fishing or you're breaking the law.
00:35:30
Speaker
You get a ticket like, man, fucking go fishing, you know?
00:35:32
Speaker
Um, but, but, you know, like very, uh, very true to like doing things for, um, you know, the right reasons.
00:35:44
Speaker
And the other half of it is,
00:35:47
Speaker
Some of the things were a little bit stricter than I am that they taught, and there are some things that I don't necessarily agree with, but that came from one day asking myself, why do I think the things that I think?
00:36:03
Speaker
Why are my opinions my own opinions, or are they because they are passed to me?
00:36:08
Speaker
Am I the type of person that's able to form my own thoughts?
00:36:13
Speaker
And so I did a lot of questioning and, you know, searching with myself to like really decide for myself why I think the things that I do and if they're the right things to be thinking for me.
00:36:25
Speaker
So I think it was a little bit of a combination of both.
00:36:28
Speaker
Do you do that?
00:36:29
Speaker
Is that like this introspective work?
00:36:31
Speaker
Is that something that you do on a consistent basis?
00:36:34
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's important to keep yourself updated.
00:36:37
Speaker
World views change, the climate of things, you know, it changes.
00:36:42
Speaker
you have to remind yourself, especially as you take steps and get more, you know, tunnel vision or focused in things that you're doing.
00:36:52
Speaker
Like you got to remind yourself what it is that you're doing, like why you're doing it.
00:36:57
Speaker
Does it still make sense?
00:36:58
Speaker
Like, is it still like a spark of happiness?
00:37:03
Speaker
How is it affecting like the people around you?
00:37:06
Speaker
Stuff like that.
00:37:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:09
Speaker
It's, it's amazing.
00:37:10
Speaker
I really, I,
00:37:12
Speaker
I really respect seeing it in others as well.
00:37:14
Speaker
It's played a huge role in my life as well.
00:37:18
Speaker
I was very unhappy and I had to take the introspection game to a whole other level in order to make it out alive, almost literally.
00:37:31
Speaker
But this society that we're in kind of pulls our attention in all different places where we're constantly triggered to put our attention on the outside.
00:37:43
Speaker
And man, especially in Web3, you have FOMO that's waiting for you at every corner.
00:37:50
Speaker
You get this sense that you need to be plugged in constantly.
00:37:56
Speaker
And so it drains your dopamine and it drains your energy as well.
00:38:01
Speaker
And I don't know if you do that.
00:38:05
Speaker
I have a very rigorous meditation practice.
00:38:09
Speaker
I meditate up to two or three hours every day.
00:38:12
Speaker
And I feel like when I don't do it, it's life that drags me wherever it wants.
00:38:21
Speaker
And I end up making stupid mistakes and I end up in the places where I believed I didn't want to end up anymore.
00:38:29
Speaker
And so I don't understand how people do, especially Web3, without at least that introspection work.
00:38:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:38
Speaker
I don't meditate or anything per se, but I think that I just practice mindfulness and awareness of things.
00:38:47
Speaker
Because even what you were just saying, receiving all kinds of things from external sources, if you're mindful and aware of things,
00:38:57
Speaker
exactly what we talked about.
00:38:58
Speaker
Like, it's just, uh, psychology and you have to think like, um, people are doing things and they're posting things and like, you know, Instagram pictures and all this stuff for likes and stuff like that.
00:39:13
Speaker
And the likes are just a, a form of, you know, instant gratification that, that triggers, you know, brain chemicals and things like that.
00:39:21
Speaker
And it's designed for that purpose to make you feel like that so that you,
00:39:25
Speaker
are addicted to it so that you do come back to it.
00:39:28
Speaker
So if you are able to like have that awareness and realize like that's how it will affect you, then I think you're able to take a step back from it and, um, not, you know, let it control you or anything like that.
00:39:42
Speaker
It's so hard to like, think about these things at that scale.
00:39:46
Speaker
It is very necessary, but I, I,
00:39:50
Speaker
we need to break out of the, of the matrix somehow.
00:39:53
Speaker
Did you, did you follow the whole Andrew Tate thing?
00:39:56
Speaker
Not, not too much.
00:39:58
Speaker
You know, he was somebody that I never really, um, you know, I didn't really agree with, with really anything that he was ever saying.
00:40:07
Speaker
So he's just somebody that I didn't pay attention to.
00:40:10
Speaker
You know, I saw that he got arrested and he got in an argument with somebody that was probably half his age, which was just super, super immature.
00:40:17
Speaker
Um, but,
00:40:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:21
Speaker
I kind of just, you know, stay away from that kind of stuff.
00:40:25
Speaker
And if somebody asked me like, how do I feel about it?
00:40:28
Speaker
You know, I'll be honest with them, but otherwise speaking about that kind of thing is just like polarizing, which is what like social media expects from you to, you know, be polarizing so that there's more engagement and stuff like that.
00:40:43
Speaker
And it just causes arguments because people have been so polarized and they want to just be political and they want to be correct.
00:40:50
Speaker
and not politically correct.
00:40:52
Speaker
They just want to be political and they also, you know, want to be correct.
00:40:55
Speaker
So, uh, I just kind of, you know, yeah, I understand
Artistic Freedom and Humor in Rejection
00:40:58
Speaker
that.
00:40:58
Speaker
And you're, you're like, you're an entertainer, you, you, and you're really good at it and might not want to throw yourself into every political debate that throws itself at you.
00:41:10
Speaker
That's true too.
00:41:12
Speaker
That's true too.
00:41:12
Speaker
But I also, yeah, you don't want to make that kind of thing, your brand because, um,
00:41:20
Speaker
it will get radical very quickly.
00:41:22
Speaker
You know, things are very, very easy to radicalize, uh, when they're polarized and, um, it'll get taken to a place that's like completely out of your control.
00:41:33
Speaker
And then also, um, it alienates, you know, a lot of other people that would want to have supported you, but don't necessarily like need it to go that deep.
00:41:44
Speaker
I don't need to be correct about everything.
00:41:47
Speaker
I don't need everybody else to be correct about everything.
00:41:50
Speaker
Like just fucking make smart choices.
00:41:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:56
Speaker
Let me make my music.
00:41:58
Speaker
Let me do my thing.
00:41:59
Speaker
And yeah, yeah, that makes sense.
00:42:02
Speaker
By the way, I was mentioning Andrew Tate.
00:42:05
Speaker
I had the same initial reaction to him as you.
00:42:10
Speaker
And a friend of mine who I really respect was sharing his stuff on Instagram and I hit him up and said like, not you, what are you doing?
00:42:20
Speaker
And then it led to a big conversation of like,
00:42:26
Speaker
him telling me he's not who you think he is.
00:42:28
Speaker
And I was very skeptical, but I've, I've no one's right all the time.
00:42:36
Speaker
Uh, I, I believe myself to be a good judge of people, but I, I'm not perfect.
00:42:39
Speaker
And, and you, you algorithms have a way of showing you what certain people want you to see.
00:42:50
Speaker
And, and so you get, uh,
00:42:54
Speaker
Yeah, you get kind of, even smart people get, yeah, I lost my words, but yeah, you can get duped.
00:43:07
Speaker
And so he sent me a few pieces of content and one of them was a four hour something conversation interview by Patrick Bat-David, who I didn't know either before, but who turns out to be a very smart guy and they're having this conversation.
00:43:24
Speaker
like listening to Andrew Tate for more than 10 minutes, you realize, oh, holy shit, like the internet is actually presenting him in a way that is not actually him.
00:43:33
Speaker
He says things that are so in your face and so provocative, but that makes sense in the context of a 10 minute, 15 minute, 20 minute long conversation because you have the whole picture.
00:43:45
Speaker
But people have had the tendency with him to kind of pick apart and
00:43:50
Speaker
take the most provocative and then turn it into a reel or turn it into a TikTok video.
00:43:56
Speaker
And so he's been, I'm not saying I'm not, I haven't become an advocate for Andrew Tate yet, but I do think that there's a lot of good stuff that he's saying.
00:44:05
Speaker
And I was mentioning him because of the whole Matrix thing where he says it a lot.
00:44:12
Speaker
He says,
00:44:13
Speaker
What he says is he wants to break people out of the matrix, which I do think is necessary.
00:44:19
Speaker
And I do think that Web3 actually is a way for that, which makes these types of conversations all the more important because, yeah, you seem to have a lot of stuff figured out.
00:44:32
Speaker
And it's really cool to see.
00:44:35
Speaker
I can only hope to try to figure it out.
00:44:38
Speaker
No, you're well on your way already.
00:44:40
Speaker
Where does that confidence come from?
00:44:43
Speaker
Because you re-covet.
00:44:45
Speaker
It's just so... And it's really cool to see.
00:44:50
Speaker
And how did you get here?
00:44:51
Speaker
Did you always have it?
00:44:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:54
Speaker
It came from being able to laugh off rejection and realize that rejection is really just... Everything is a numbers game.
00:45:07
Speaker
People could say no 400 times in a row and then like
00:45:13
Speaker
that 401st time is like what completely changes your life.
00:45:17
Speaker
Um, so it just, yeah, it's, it's, everything is a numbers game.
00:45:27
Speaker
Um, being able to find like humor and, and everything in, in everyday life, um, it helps because like some people, you know, take rejection or, or shortcomings or failures and they get really down on themselves and,
00:45:41
Speaker
and they let it like get in the way of, uh, you know, the person that they are or the things that they're trying to accomplish.
00:45:48
Speaker
But, um, if it's just, if it's just something that you can laugh at, or that's just kind of funny, like you're just going to keep going.
00:45:55
Speaker
So, uh, yeah, I like to say that like one of my good qualities is the confidence to do the things that I do.
00:46:04
Speaker
Um, everybody's going to have days where they feel less confident than others or like, you know, more shitty or whatever else.
00:46:11
Speaker
But life is going to go on with or without you.
00:46:16
Speaker
So you can dwell on it, or you can keep going.
00:46:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:21
Speaker
That's Phases, right?
00:46:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:24
Speaker
Your song.
00:46:25
Speaker
Phases.
00:46:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:27
Speaker
Crystal Feel.
00:46:28
Speaker
Yeah, man.
00:46:29
Speaker
Crystal Feel is really, I would say, an introspective album in general.
00:46:36
Speaker
Prior to that, I didn't really speak too much on
00:46:40
Speaker
you know, personal, like mental things or things of my life or whatever else.
00:46:47
Speaker
It was more of just the typical, you know, public image of a rapper.
00:46:52
Speaker
You know, I got drip.
00:46:54
Speaker
I'm cool like this, whatever else.
00:46:57
Speaker
But getting into artistry and diving deeper into it, you eventually have to like, again, you have to think like, why am I doing this?
00:47:07
Speaker
Like, what do I feel about what I'm doing?
00:47:11
Speaker
And that's what I like about doing this now is like a digital character is because once you get into that bucket of like that type of artistry and that type of progression, like that's a path that you have to continue.
00:47:24
Speaker
And it gets kind of, you know, tough to be that real all the time and not just do things for fun sometimes.
00:47:33
Speaker
And so like as a digital identity, like junior doesn't have to be tied together.
00:47:37
Speaker
to a person's human experience because he's just a robot character.
00:47:42
Speaker
So I can separate if I want to go back to making music as Vega Genesis and being a real human emotional experience.
00:47:52
Speaker
And I can separate it with Junior and just doing things for the hype and for the fun and just for the hell of it.
00:47:58
Speaker
That's so cool.
00:48:01
Speaker
Are you developing Junior's kind of identity?
00:48:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:06
Speaker
Uh, there's like a backstory and like a little bit of lore and stuff like that I have built out.
00:48:10
Speaker
And that's, I kind of touched on that when I introduced like the Valhalla version and then the fact that there will be more versions and cloned versions and like upgraded versions like that very much, you know, does play into the backstory of it.
00:48:24
Speaker
Um, you know, being a robot, robots don't have, uh, like a consciousness of their own unless it's just like,
00:48:35
Speaker
a very, very, very advanced, uh, AI that can like mimic empathy.
00:48:41
Speaker
Right.
00:48:42
Speaker
So like, yeah, consciousness in a robot has to come from somewhere, which is like the backstory of junior and why this version and this iteration is a rapper that can choose to take bits and pieces from like my personal life as, you know, myself as Vega Genesis.
00:49:01
Speaker
Um, because, uh,
00:49:05
Speaker
there's like a chip or whatever type of device I choose to like transfer a consciousness of somebody from a previous lifetime into the robot itself.
00:49:17
Speaker
So it has a personality.
00:49:19
Speaker
And that's why different versions will do different things because they can't all be on the same consciousness.
00:49:30
Speaker
You know, there will have to be different, different versions of junior represented by different,
00:49:34
Speaker
different people from different times that have different, you know, mentalities and different personalities and stuff.
00:49:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:40
Speaker
This is so sick.
00:49:41
Speaker
Like the, the, the potential is, the potential is limitless.
00:49:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:47
Speaker
That's my favorite thing about it.
00:49:48
Speaker
Like I, I thought of that originally because I would like to take it into the development of like an anime or like a cartoon.
00:49:58
Speaker
So I had to think like, you know, storyline, like why,
00:50:01
Speaker
you know, who is this character in the story?
00:50:03
Speaker
Is he still a rapper?
00:50:04
Speaker
You know, if I were to do the anime, he wouldn't be a rapper.
00:50:06
Speaker
It's completely separate things.
00:50:07
Speaker
Why or how, you know, so that was the, uh, the backstory that I came up with for that.
00:50:15
Speaker
I fucking love it.
00:50:17
Speaker
Yeah, there's many ways that you could take this.
00:50:20
Speaker
Do you, what's the, because you have Vega Genesis, who's the manager for Junior, and if you were to paint the perfect outcome for you in 10 years, where
Junior's Vision and Creative Partnerships
00:50:32
Speaker
would you be?
00:50:32
Speaker
What's Vega?
00:50:33
Speaker
Who else is he managing?
00:50:35
Speaker
What types of stories do we see Junior in?
00:50:39
Speaker
What has he become then?
00:50:42
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I would like to see
00:50:45
Speaker
the brand of junior, just this all encompassing, like, you know, media giant that does everything like, you know, like YouTube and Tik TOK and you know, Twitch streaming, the games, music, you know, cartoons and merchandise, all those types of things.
00:51:02
Speaker
And in all those like streams and different platforms, it would be nice to employ different people who are talented and weren't given like the spotlight,
00:51:13
Speaker
in their own like physical sense, you know, similar to, you know, how I went about things that way, like there are several people benefiting from the image, building the brand together and also like for themselves and for the, you know, the, the profit of themselves.
00:51:32
Speaker
That way, you know, it even plays deeper into the lore and the backstory of it being a clone
00:51:40
Speaker
with different, you know, capabilities based on what, what chips have been inputted.
00:51:45
Speaker
Like obviously robots can go through any types of upgrades there.
00:51:49
Speaker
That's why it doesn't matter if somebody on a Twitch stream sounds different than I sound like voices, all modulation, if you're a robot.
00:51:56
Speaker
So like it could be somebody that's female.
00:51:59
Speaker
It could be somebody that's male.
00:52:00
Speaker
It could be, you know, older person.
00:52:03
Speaker
It could be a younger person, but I just would like to seek out talented people that deserve, uh,
00:52:10
Speaker
the spotlight they aren't given and can help build something together that's bigger than themselves.
00:52:17
Speaker
So I hope it's, you know, that in 10 years where it's just this massive thing.
00:52:21
Speaker
And I like to use the example, Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse is 90 years old.
00:52:28
Speaker
Mickey Mouse is in everything, has been in everything, has been in video games, has been in movies.
00:52:32
Speaker
You know, I would, I would love for us to see people take digital identities there,
00:52:40
Speaker
Because that, again, you know, like I talked about, that's like real legacy.
00:52:44
Speaker
Like that's forever.
00:52:46
Speaker
Oh man, I'd never thought of it that far.
00:52:49
Speaker
For me, it was so simple of, hey, I'm just going to slap an AR mask on my face because it allows me to be anonymous and to not... What I personally love, and I think I find it in what you're saying as well in a different form, for me, my project is a DAO and I would hate for this when it grows huge to be about me.
00:53:16
Speaker
I hate the whole entrepreneur superstar thing.
00:53:20
Speaker
It pisses me off because entrepreneurs, the CEOs, they're not the only people building these businesses.
00:53:27
Speaker
And so I don't want to be...
00:53:30
Speaker
I think everyone plays an important role and I think I play an important role, but I don't think I play the role.
00:53:37
Speaker
And so that's what I love about this is that it's not about me.
00:53:39
Speaker
This is a character.
00:53:40
Speaker
This is online.
00:53:41
Speaker
He lives online.
00:53:42
Speaker
And then when I take it off, I'm me and I have my real life and no one really knows what I'm doing.
00:53:48
Speaker
And I kind of like it like that.
00:53:50
Speaker
And this way you have the online character that takes his friends along a journey
00:53:54
Speaker
And, and that does cool stuff.
00:53:56
Speaker
And then he goes back to real life and he can just live.
00:53:58
Speaker
And I love that you're, yeah, I love the vision that you have because it really, you could actually build a brand that outlives you by 200 years.
00:54:08
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:54:09
Speaker
I mean, it's, it's definitely like that's, that's something that's the dream.
00:54:15
Speaker
I think for all creators is to make something that lasts longer than you do.
00:54:22
Speaker
there was one of the basketball players, I can't remember who said it in a press conference, like recently, they were asking him, you know, something about, I don't know, some negative shit about the game or like, how do you think you played or whatever else?
00:54:37
Speaker
And obviously, like, you know, sometimes if you have a bad game, you don't want to answer those questions anyway.
00:54:43
Speaker
So he was just like, in 200 years, nobody will even know who I am.
00:54:48
Speaker
You know what I mean?
00:54:49
Speaker
Like in 200 years, nobody's going to know me, but like junior may very well still be around.
00:54:55
Speaker
Anything's possible.
00:54:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:57
Speaker
I'm picturing it now.
00:54:58
Speaker
I'm picturing it now.
00:55:00
Speaker
How do you, how do you, you're a businessman, you're a rapper and you're really good at it, but you're also a businessman and you're also somewhat of a tech visionary as well, because you're, you're utilizing a new technology in a way that no one's thought of before.
00:55:18
Speaker
And so in various aspects of your role right now, you use both parts of your brain that usually don't really work too well together, like be too businessy for too long.
00:55:29
Speaker
And then, and then it gets hard to create art.
00:55:32
Speaker
How do you, how do you deal with that?
00:55:34
Speaker
I think like one of my biggest sources of inspiration for my creativity is like coming up with creative solutions and creative solutions,
00:55:46
Speaker
is very like business driven at the same time, because like, you know, my thought process generally, uh, like it could be viewed as slightly like pessimistic, but when somebody like presents something to me, or if I think of an idea, I, you know, my brain immediately goes through like a checklist of, okay, if I'm doing this, what are all the things that could possibly go wrong so that I would be able to create a way to overcome those things?
00:56:14
Speaker
And, um,
00:56:15
Speaker
it helps me move forward and it helps, uh, in that kind of business sense because, uh, it comes from a place of logic.
00:56:23
Speaker
You know, those, those two things kind of don't get along sometimes creativity and logic.
00:56:28
Speaker
But if you use the logic, um, to come up with like creative solutions for things, then you're still, you're still able to take the rest of what you're doing and align it with, uh,
00:56:43
Speaker
you know, like a successful model or a way that makes sense.
00:56:48
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:56:49
Speaker
And so you're not having any, like at what rate do you, do you create artistic, um, content?
00:56:57
Speaker
Uh, every day.
00:56:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:59
Speaker
You're, you're just taking all the, all the excuses I could have had.
00:57:02
Speaker
Cause I I'm trying to pick up, I'm trying to pick up, uh, I've been writing for a little bit.
00:57:08
Speaker
And so I,
00:57:10
Speaker
you know, writing that transforms into poems, that transforms into slowly some sort of music and then picking up the guitar and trying to do it.
00:57:19
Speaker
And then I...
00:57:20
Speaker
But it's so hard when you're in the rush of life and of business and of managing people and trying to figure out the future.
00:57:31
Speaker
And when you have all of this uncertainty, I find it really hard to write creatively or to actually even just play the guitar a little bit.
00:57:39
Speaker
But it just goes back to what do you prioritize and how much room do you give your excuses?
00:57:49
Speaker
It's not only that, but we're in a time and an age where we can monetize legitimately every single thing that we do.
00:58:02
Speaker
You know, if you take anything that you do throughout your day, any of your hobbies, any of your necessities, even things that you need to do, like eating and cooking, people have monetized them, all of them.
00:58:14
Speaker
So,
00:58:15
Speaker
you can't really force creativity out of yourself.
00:58:17
Speaker
If you don't feel like writing, like you can't write.
00:58:20
Speaker
There are times where like I should be writing and I'm just not, cause I don't feel like it.
00:58:24
Speaker
But what else am I going to do instead?
00:58:26
Speaker
Am I, am I playing video games?
00:58:28
Speaker
Am I just shooting the shit with friends, you know, making up just funny conversations.
00:58:33
Speaker
I can take those things and monetize them behind what I'm doing.
00:58:40
Speaker
You know, like if I'm playing video games, why not do it in a way that can pay me?
00:58:44
Speaker
If I'm,
00:58:45
Speaker
already just, you know, fucking around and joking around and just wanting to have a laugh with some people, why not take some of those funny things that were said and save them to be said in a video or just make the video live?
00:58:59
Speaker
It's like a podcast type of thing.
00:59:01
Speaker
Like you can, you can monetize everything that you do.
00:59:06
Speaker
And so when you think about it that way, then you,
00:59:10
Speaker
like the consistency is kind of built in and it doesn't feel like you have to be doing a single thing.
00:59:16
Speaker
Like you don't have to be just like playing guitar and writing songs.
00:59:20
Speaker
Like you're also doing these things that you would have already done anyway, but now it counts and it's going towards, you know, the same goal that you had.
00:59:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:59:33
Speaker
That makes a lot of sense.
00:59:35
Speaker
We live in a crazy time.
00:59:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:59:37
Speaker
Man, this was really cool.
00:59:39
Speaker
I'd like to close these conversations these ways.
00:59:45
Speaker
Who are you looking for at the moment?
00:59:48
Speaker
Who are the people that you're trying to talk to or interested in talking to that you would like for them to reach out to you?
00:59:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:59:59
Speaker
just people in like major, you know, places that have the connections or could provide the opportunities to give, you know, what I'm doing, like more visibility or like more merit.
01:00:13
Speaker
Um, because everything is very hype driven and like, you know, people pay attention to like what's everywhere all the time, like what's popping or whatever else.
01:00:21
Speaker
Um, that's, that's kind of what I'm trying to do is like, you know, gain more credibility, uh, more visibility, uh,
01:00:28
Speaker
work with major brands as partners and things like that.
01:00:33
Speaker
The biggest issue that I'm having is that people see what I'm doing and then they see the potential of where it could go.
01:00:42
Speaker
And instead of wanting to support me doing it, they want it for themselves.
01:00:47
Speaker
They'll be like, wow, this is an incredible thing.
01:00:50
Speaker
This stands to make so much money.
01:00:52
Speaker
There's so much potential behind this.
01:00:54
Speaker
Can you teach me how to do it?
01:00:56
Speaker
You know, can you tell me how you do it so that I know how I can do it?
01:00:59
Speaker
It's never, it's never really about like, Hey, I see what you're doing and I want to push it forward because I see it and I believe in it.
01:01:05
Speaker
It's like, Hey, I believe in that so much that I want to do it myself.
01:01:11
Speaker
So I guess that's like, that's like my biggest problem that I'm having right now.
01:01:16
Speaker
And I, and I just would like, you know, the people that I need are, are the people that are, you know, willing to do something outside of themselves and have,
01:01:26
Speaker
the connections to make it visible and more credible.
01:01:29
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:30
Speaker
I'm taking this to heart actually.
01:01:31
Speaker
And I'll keep thinking about what I can do myself at my own scale.
01:01:35
Speaker
And I'll definitely make that clear.
01:01:37
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely, man.
01:01:38
Speaker
You, you deserve it.
01:01:39
Speaker
And yeah, like I said, I've said it like three times already, but I love what you're doing and I respect it and I'll
01:01:46
Speaker
use every opportunity that I have to, uh, to support and push you forward.
01:01:51
Speaker
Um, thanks man.
01:01:53
Speaker
Thanks a lot for taking the time for waking up early and, uh, and yeah, we'll probably talk soon again in the future.
01:02:01
Speaker
For sure.
01:02:01
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:02
Speaker
Just let me know, you know, whatever you need from me, whatever.
01:02:05
Speaker
Um, I try to respond quickly, but sometimes I get a little bit, uh, caught up in the day, but yeah, I'm usually pretty, pretty responsive.
01:02:13
Speaker
It's all good.
01:02:13
Speaker
Do your thing, man.
01:02:14
Speaker
I, I, I respect it.
01:02:17
Speaker
The universe sings.