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00:00it is lifestyle specialist kenny burns join me in welcoming the founder of bevel mr tristan walker
00:28the legendary actor and one of my favorite scenes in the movie ever leon i want to play shy brother
00:36witch and leon before we get off of this anytime bro anytime bro ladies and gentlemen the world's
00:43greatest entertainer doug e fresh with my brother i love you big brother almighty and probably the most
00:52fortunate legend on this call because during this pandemic he has found a silver line ladies and
01:00gentlemen give it up for d nice i love you uh everyone how are you good to see you it's i mean
01:12it's a pandemic and we find time to come together uh for this amazing conversation is everybody good
01:18and whole thank you very much very well yes sir awesome awesome d nice i want to start with you
01:26man um you're having an amazing couple months uh your passion for what you do um has shown through
01:34amazingly uh with your ig live offerings but i think your style is probably one of the key things
01:43in your uh gumbo when you started with your hats and your presentation coming in how how was that
01:50at the beginning of the groundswell and then being known for the change of the hats and the whole
01:56presentation man i mean you know doing what i do which is it's funny actually that doug is on here
02:03because doug is uh one of the people that inspired me early on like no lie like from from doug when we
02:09were touring back in like 88 and doug was eating lettuce sandwiches and doing push-ups i used to
02:16sit there and watch him and watch his dedication i'm not making this up i watched how dedicated he was
02:22to to being being healthy and just being dougie fresh you know what i mean and being someone that
02:28that the world admired um so like when it came time for me to do what i'm doing right now what i love
02:34it it just came innately like it's it was just easy as far as like the hat changes the hat changes
02:40was actually an accident the hat changes i was djing myself everyone was crazy and i had to use the
02:46restroom so i took my hat off ran to the restroom came back and grabbed the wrong hat and put it on
02:52and people were like yo hat change oh the vibe is changing okay this is a thing so that's when i started
03:00changing the hats up during my set man and it just kind of became my thing now so
03:08i love that the beard is fuller i see that you're growing it in thick it looks amazing
03:13oh this is my kenny burns impression
03:20dougie fresh we were having a conversation offline my brother um and your skin man i i you know leon
03:29set it up i had to knock it out the park with your skin doug i mean what's what's happening i know you
03:35said coconut water but what is going on you're aging backwards nah well i appreciate that brother but
03:43i'm gonna tell you man leon put so much pressure on me man i mean when i heard about i started going in
03:53there i started just grabbing coconut water i started doing everything i could man but but
03:58honestly i tell you what d said which is the truth kenny and you know this as as a as a thing because i
04:04watch you too you drink that water on a constant basis i watched your show you drink that water what is
04:11the recipe to life and and and so so one of the things is that i tell people all the time you know just
04:18completely transparent health is wealth and you get well from your health that's exactly how it works
04:24so i i think that what people see with me is the same thing d said i still do push-ups i still eat
04:31lettuce sandwiches i still run like i used to run and and pretty much if we wasn't on lockdown i'd probably
04:40be somewhere performing tonight because i did i was doing probably like close to 200 shows a year
04:45so yeah that's what it is man it's a lifestyle which you are the lifestyle specialist so i know
04:51you understand what i'm talking about yes yes good brother almighty and leon you know you jokingly said
04:58before we went live that you didn't do nothing to your i don't think you ever have to do nothing to
05:03your face leon you're a blessed individual you have a tribe of followers and and to be honest it never
05:10seems out of place even if you haven't shaved this week which we don't believe you it seems pretty
05:16well but you don't believe well have i lied to you before never i'm just i'm trying to say i know god
05:24i know god didn't put that type of favor on you you have to do some type of controlling
05:29well to be honest with you as far as my facial hair is concerned none um because you know as you can see
05:36mine i'm growing as full as yours i see the line actually actually no you don't see a line see
05:44that's one thing i want to tell you about grooming if you want to talk about grooming is i think it's
05:48particularly men yeah i think that i think a lot of men go to the barber shop and i call them cookie
05:54cutters haircuts where they basically get everything done the same as the next man and i'm not like that
06:00i don't shape up this i want people to see where my hair actually starts growing
06:03same thing with the same thing with the line on my head i have a widow's peak i like that that makes
06:08me look different from the next dude i so i like to keep my natural attributes you know of my face
06:14because that's distinguishes me from the next man i don't like to walk out the barber shop and i look
06:18around everyone everybody got the same haircut as me that's that's just not me yeah no you listen you
06:24you're a legendary fly and i guess that's just a natural looking line instead of an actual bevel cut
06:30line tristan walker um you have a lot of muses you have a lot of muses on this live and you are the
06:38hair guy you are the hair guy what does grooming mean to you and why did you start bevel yeah i started
06:48double because i felt like we deserved better right like for 15 years i couldn't shave every single brand
06:54that marketed to me the products didn't work um you know they would put a dude with you know 65 year
07:00old with a jerry curl on the box right and think that i should like pick up and use that product i
07:04didn't know that i was being respected um and i felt look in a world where black men are the most
07:10culturally influential people in the world um you know we spend more money in this category than anyone
07:15else uh we deserve better we deserve the design experience that was better we deserve a product use case
07:22that was better and no one else was trying to do that right so i wanted to create bevel to really
07:27celebrate um our own uniqueness like me on the sand um and do it in a way that we can actually feel
07:32proud of and i'm most proud of the fact uh that we did that seven years later cool uh yeah my brother uh
07:43harlem i i need to go i need to go back to dougie for a second dougie you know harlem man synonymous with
07:51style um you know i remember man like you know just growing up watching y'all do y'all thing
07:58and it was effortless man i'm talking about from the curls to the clothes whatever it was
08:03it was important to be fly talk about coming up in hip-hop and how that felt you were actually doing
08:11well one one of the things one of the things in harlem when you grew up you know and you grew up in
08:16harlem if you if you came out of your house and you wasn't correct everybody on the block will correct
08:23you you know and so it was definitely like you said kenny it was just a part of the lifestyle if
08:30you went to any party you knew exactly what it was all about like most style that people rock out here
08:38you know a lot of it and i'm not saying this in no negative way about any other place but harlem have
08:43always had a unique style in the way they dress it was aj lester's from british walkers to whatever
08:50kind of you know pants and shirts so it and especially with me when i came out and you you out of dc
08:57you know i had the feline sweatsuits sergio ticini you know i mean i was putting it on about the gate
09:04because it was like so so and that's the one thing we had in common with dc you know what i mean with the
09:10with the fresh sneakers like everything you had on had to be you know 100 and in regards to the
09:16haircuts i agree with what what leon was saying because you wanted your look to be unique you know
09:24what i'm saying so yeah so we will go to diddy mo and the barber shop and everything would be i mean
09:30he cut here so serious we will fly him in to just cut the hair you see what i'm saying so fly and flavor
09:39and harlem has always been at the foundation i think that that's one of the things that
09:43all of us on this whole thing got in common d is from harlem d d was d lives in harlem now don't you
09:54wait no no no i live um i live in l.a now i'm from harlem i was born in harlem born in harlem hospital
09:59yeah i thought you still had your place in harlem that's what i thought no no my mom still has her
10:04place in harlem though yes yes so d nice d nice you came up same era but you were the youngin in the
10:13crew like you were like 15 16 years old dapper dan like what was that like being schooled by your big
10:21brothers and being at the epicenter of hip hop well my big brothers in terms of like being in the group
10:28no i wasn't really schooled on on the flyness from them care us is my brother but he he didn't wear
10:34the dapper dan the same way we wore it you know what i mean like i was the young kid in harlem and i
10:38used to watch dudes on 145th street at willie burgers pulling up in their cars so chris was never
10:44really the car dude or the clothes dude me i was like the young kid that was i was just in it because
10:50that's what i love you know so having the flavor of like music coming from the bronx well i was born in
10:55harlem raised in harlem but my formative years in terms of like hip-hop was really in the bronx but
11:01i'm i was always a harlem cat you know what i mean like so even if i hung out in the bronx i walked
11:06over the bridge walked down past that garden and i was just hanging out with them cats i wanted to be
11:11fly like them um my style really came from my love of that came from like eric b and rakim and like
11:19wanting i was always obsessed with like eric b's flavor you know eric always had the nice car
11:25eric had a rose royce before it was like the thing now you know what i mean like so i love
11:31their style and like having like you know even like when it's when it comes to my hats i don't
11:36i don't really buy hats off of the rack i haven't made because that's what i grew up loving like having
11:41things that are made you know just for you you know and and you know and i wish i had a widow's
11:47peak you know i'm saying like i'm probably one of trish's biggest supporters because i use his clippers
11:51every day yeah leon leon you played some masterful roles my brother i'm talking about from little
12:03before you get into that i just want to say something about what what um dougie said
12:07okay okay because you know in harlem and we all know this also had them avant-garde brothers brothers
12:14are quick like where did he get that from i represented them you know i'd be looking at
12:22magazines from like london and i'd be like yo okay that's what's happening right them brothers are
12:28sharp i gotta bring that over here so and you notice quite a few brothers like that in harlem it's like
12:33everybody rocking one gig like that was that was me i was always looking at those brothers i'm like okay
12:38yeah all right he's trying to do something different that was me and there's a lot of brothers like
12:43that in harlem i just want to say i want to get in there for sure but i think i think i think leon
12:49that came out in your roles i think that you know i'm saying every character that you portrayed in film
12:56you put a piece of yourself i never forget seeing you play little richard i mean five heartbeats like
13:00all the the historic movies you've been in style was a part of your game yeah very much so um i always
13:09thought that um style was a big part of my life um growing up um and something i've always put into
13:16my work as well um i just think it's important as a man as a human being your style is what you frame
13:25yourself i mean all of us have a head all of us have a body you know that was given to us by god but
13:30how do you frame yourself you know that tells me something about you you know you see a brother and
13:36the brother he got no style he got nothing you're just like okay he's not he hasn't realized what
13:42he is yet because he's not even trying to frame himself right and then you get the people that
13:47how many times you hear this oh you know looks ain't that important
13:54i wouldn't be i wouldn't be talking to you brothers if i didn't look the way i did i wouldn't
13:58have played the roles you know and when and when someone sees you right that's how they want to meet
14:03you like no one looks at me or or or looks at you or or d nice and says oh look at d nice he looks
14:10like he reads really good books and can cook no that's not what they say they're looking at you
14:20and your style and they go yo okay i can get with that okay and that's the way it is so i think style
14:27is an important part of an individual's life and lifestyle you know because that's the stuff that's what
14:33they can see before they even know you that's right it speaks for itself uh tristan man you created
14:39this product for black men you've been successful with it how has that been to see an actual idea
14:46kind of fruition and then be adored by the people that you made it for yeah man i think that there's
14:53an important narrative around celebrating black economic empowerment and i've been very lucky
14:59to be able to participate in some of that right i got two young black boys um and let me kind of
15:04tell you a story that is really important to you when i think about this the first time we got into
15:08target stores right um it was the first time i got to actually see our product in the store i took my
15:13son he was two years old at the time and we go down the aisle and my son points behind me and he's like
15:20dada right so i turned around and i realized that he was pointing at me because i was on the box
15:26and at that point i realized i was like man he doesn't realize this yet this is the first time he
15:31doesn't have to walk down some like ethnic beauty aisle right like he's in a respected aisle and he's
15:36like needs and perspective and then he started to realize that now what he will that he can also be a
15:42producer right just like a consumer his dad's on that box you know so i think the thing that has been so
15:48wonderful about bevel is this celebration that we can do it too we deserve to have a seat at the
15:53table all the stuff around like making products that work making beautiful products that work for
15:58people that's like the baseline table six stuff but this is about so much more than that and i like
16:04to think about bevel as a cultural institution that makes products for people right um but we're
16:09going to keep celebrating that culture because it's important because those stories that my son
16:13experience we need more people experiencing that makes sense absolutely that makes sense brothers
16:20did you see that walmart is um stop locking up black products hair products and facial products they're
16:29going to stop they're going to take the lock off so we can just go there just like white people
16:33and pick out what we need yeah let's go let's go dougie dougie i want to start this question with you
16:42we're all parents we're all parents that uh are probably experiencing one of the most uh
16:50uncomfortable periods of our lives you know this this pandemic on top of the pandemic we have the
16:55racial tensions and we're teaching our children and most of us have grown children um how to
17:02you know prepare how to exist in this moment um and i think that there's a certain responsibility as
17:09as parents to one share what we know but then to also give them the freedom to kind of start
17:14thinking for themselves this is their first real moments in history that there's some real turmoil
17:19going on how are you holding up with that and how are you sharing those things with your children
17:26um well you know i got six sons so um and i'm and i still live in harlem so one of the things that
17:35happened was uh you know it was important for me to to to kind of build them up before this ever
17:43happened to make them understand how is it being a black man in america and i think that when when
17:50you know us as men on this on this line right here you know when we're talking about grooming
17:56room is not just in the way that we look on the outside but who we are on the inside
18:02so you know um that's that's that's my main thing i'm concerned with the outside but i'm very
18:10concerned with the inside because one of the things that we have to do is make sure that we teach
18:16our kids to have high levels of self-esteem because a lot for so long a lot of us were trying to be
18:24something that we wasn't and instead of being ourselves and and you know when you look when i look
18:30at all of y'all here and everybody's successful from being yourself i mean i've always tried to
18:36make sure that in hip-hop that that i was an original you know i created my own style and i try to show
18:44that as an example to just you know be confident about who you are so these are rough times but i
18:50think that these times i think before it gets better it has to get rough sometimes you know what i mean
18:56i think sometimes you have to go through something to appreciate something because you might not
19:04appreciate it as much as you should unless you go through something if that makes sense you know
19:11what i mean absolutely absolutely you always you always know what to say dick brother um but that's
19:17absolutely facts and uh d nice you have two beautiful daughters you have you know ends of the spectrum
19:23might i add you have a you know a graduate that's in now law school you have a daughter um what are
19:30you talking to them about doing these times because i know you just were fortunate enough to get them
19:35on your side of the country how how is that going and how you doing with them well the beauty of having
19:40like um having a a 23 year old lost law student is i don't really do too much of the talking you know
19:48honestly is we just we converse about everything and she has her own ideas on on how this movement
19:55is going and as a matter of fact look i'll be honest with you bro when this pandemic hit look you
20:00know i'm 49 years old and you know i've been my friends had covered you know and was fighting with
20:06it and i was kind of reluctant to go downstairs to be a part of like some of the marches i was like
20:12yo this is this is feeling unsafe you know but it was my daughter my daughter was
20:18was she reminded me of the importance of participating you know so i'm i'm fortunate
20:23enough to be able to like talk to the 23 year old young woman that's like hey you need to get out
20:29there and this is important it's important for the leadership for you to show your face out there
20:35and she went out as well you know my youngest you know she's she's still eight you know in the end
20:40you know the conversation is a little bit different you know it's you know it's a conversation that i just
20:44can't have with her alone that i need to have moms so you know we both talk to her about what's going
20:49on but it's always important to educate but also important to listen to them because this fight that's
20:55going on right now and not to make what we're talking about just about this fight but like
21:00this fight that's going on is yo the youth are leading it you know what i mean like and they are
21:06leading it and and i'm like happy to be to be on the sideline supporting and also getting out and
21:12you know i went out twice and like to to show my face out there so it's a very important time in
21:18our history and and you know and it and because we we went through this early on i've always felt
21:24like you know the further and further we we got away from like the civil rights era the worse off we
21:29started to become because it was almost like we weren't fighting for something together and like
21:34seeing what this movement has become with with the youth is so inspiring man i'm so i'm so proud of it
21:40you know like i'm really happy with the kids that we are raising that's dope that's dope and lee and
21:46i know you're super tight with yours as well yes you know the beauty of it is is that um i'm so happy
21:55actually that she's going through this that she's seeing that she's part of this you know because
22:02let's face it most of us have lived you know most of our lives but they're they're the ones that's being
22:08affected by this they're the ones who have to live the next 40 50 years with whatever we accomplish
22:14now so yeah i'm so happy that's something that she's gonna have to read about in history books in
22:20school she's gonna be able to tell her kids that she was there protesting she was there when it happened
22:27you know and that's amazing because i found myself i found myself even asking people older than
22:32myself what was it like in the 50s and how does it compare to now you know but the difference between
22:38now and then is one this revolution is televised it's full of yes when they don't fall in the wood
22:47okay and the beauty of it is now it's not us black people trying to get hours it's right now as a
22:58hashtag i have on my um instagram i always ask everybody to follow and and say it it's everybody
23:04versus now i counted maybe five black people at the uh protests in philadelphia that's not that's how
23:13big that thing has become it's taken on it's taken on a life that's owned amongst all americans verse
23:20racism and believe me it was never going to happen it's never going to change until they came in
23:24port with us that's right it never would have been as big and i i love that you said that because
23:32you know at the end of the day man you know we can only do so much as a people without the support of
23:37the rest of the world and i feel like literally george floyd's death invoked the world he evoked
23:44this situation evoked a emotion that is so necessary and long overdue but tristan you actually started
23:52that off by mentioning your son seeing you in the aisle and inspired the question but i want to
23:57talk about this photo i saw during the protest it was a bunch of men in suits they were on a knee and
24:04i want to say it was in harlem dougie i don't you can confirm that or not but they were in suits immaculately
24:09dressed and they all had the fists in the air and honestly man i thought of you and your company because
24:16i was like this is a fucking ad this shit is like everybody was clean dressed to the nines and it was
24:24amazing but if you could create your campaign around today's messaging of grooming and i want to go
24:32around to the brothers on this panel but how would it look and what would it be i mean a lot of people
24:38look at me as like the bevel ceo right but people need to remember i'm a black man i'm a black husband
24:43i'm a black father i'm a black son i'm a black brother i'm a black sister right so you know what
24:49does that campaign look like i'm human right and i'm experiencing this pandemic both these pandemics
24:56covid19 uh the racism pandemic and i had to build my own capacity for empathy right and support right
25:04so my campaign is i'm a black man right just like you uh i'm a black son just like you
25:09uh and i'm doing my part and at the end of the day progress isn't a one lane highway right there are
25:15many ways that we can participate right and i'm doing my part uh with the celebration at least on
25:20the economic empowerment side what part are you going to take right because we need you
25:26i love that dougie what about you my brother
25:31well i mean you know it's very simple man it's just you know black excellence black love
25:37you know what i mean and just basically health health health all the way you know because one
25:44i want to tie this last thing into it because we was talking when d said something about covid
25:49you know um like this copen 19 situation you know we did a we did a video which is called 20
25:56seconds or more about people washing their hands and i agree with d it made everybody feel a little
26:02apprehensive to go out because you know people didn't really really look at the fact that the
26:09virus is not over it's it's people are back in action but there is no vaccine and no cure so us
26:19coming together we still have to be careful because our children could be used as weapons to come home and
26:26give grandma a kiss granddad a kiss a hug you know and these different things and their immune system
26:32can't really handle it the same way you know the child could so i think it's important for us to
26:39you know be conscious and be thoughtful and be a little bit more aware of how we move because we still
26:46have to be careful when we're looking at family you know because our our decisions can affect another
26:54person in our family and we don't mean it but this can happen you know what i mean so i just think
27:00black excellence black love and and just remember to take care of yourself man it's so important these
27:06days that's my that's awesome no i love it i love it big bro and d nice man you're an amazing
27:12photographer as well as dj and just all around human man how would you capture it man how would i capture
27:19this i mean the way i capture everything i'm not really you know big on big productions i like i
27:26think this is a great time for people to be authentically who they are you know so i would shoot
27:32it that way like it you know like even with what happened with me in terms of like you know this this
27:40this um i don't even want to say my new career it's not new i'm not doing anything new but this spark
27:46to the rest of the world with what we've always been doing and celebrating how important our culture
27:50is is that you know i've been one of those djs and it's using the dj you know just so so people can
27:58relate to it where our culture wasn't always fully respected you know and during this time even as far as
28:08entertainment goes that it was a black dj that broke through and changed the world and changed the way
28:14people use a platform like major bro and and i'm not even trying to pat myself on the back it could
28:21have been anyone else but i'm just saying it's like the music that we created the lifestyle that we
28:27create resonated with the world when the world stopped because what we do is extremely important
28:34so whatever i do in terms of like how that campaign would look it would incorporate all of those things
28:41our sexiness our music our you know you know being activists like it would have to incorporate all of
28:47that and i would be black and white because that's what the person no listen man listen bro like that's
28:54inspiring and i see it like i i see your words on billboards i see exactly what you're saying and leon you
29:01have been unmistakably the example of black excellence in style and movies if we had to put
29:10denzel wouldn't even be up there next to you and i and i and i'm saying that no cap that's the young
29:15insane but what would your version of that be well my version um would be something um very similar to
29:24that but you know the thing i would concentrate on is i think each and every one of us has a platform
29:30each one every one of us has um a way in which the world sees us and for me i like to concentrate on
29:41having young people realize the uniqueness of themselves because i tell them all the time when
29:49i speak to people i said listen there may be other people you can act better than me maybe other people
29:56you think sing better than me look better than me but nobody nobody is a better leon and when you put
30:04yourself forward and you put your uniqueness forward you are going to make a mark in this world that no
30:09one else could have made but we have too many indians in this world and not enough chiefs and what i try
30:15to do is i inspire these young people peace to go out there because we all know remember the kid that we
30:21saw at school used to dress funny and everything and they used to make fun of them that's whose clothes
30:26we buying now that's whose clothes we see in the shop okay hello because he because he or she wasn't
30:33afraid to be themselves so i guess if i had an ad campaign it would probably be anywhere from five to
30:42ten people of all different shapes and all different sizes of black dressed all uniquely different in
30:50themselves and i would say this is who we are because we've been categorized so long by people
30:58and we are so many different things and i always and that's what i do is i want to represent that to
31:03the world i want to show black in every color every size and every style because we have it all we just
31:10got to make sure you're not afraid of the show i got to use that yo man this you know essence bevel
31:17is something happening here i hope you feel the spiritual connection of the um two more questions
31:24brothers um we all we all entertain purposefully i think every time each one of us gets ready to go on
31:34stage gets ready to go behind the camera we are intense on pleasing women this is just part of our
31:42dna how tristan we're gonna start with you how has women played a part in what you do and how and
31:50lifestyle matters and what you do i mean i go back to me raising two sons right um you know as black men
31:57and people judge us just based on how we look right it's not fair it sucks but we got to show up you
32:07know and you have a wonderful wife um 13 years now um who helps me instill in these boys right um who helps
32:15me instill in these boys what it means to be a black man and to grow up as a black man and to show up
32:20as yourself um i think leon hit the nail right on the head like it's about your own uniqueness
32:26if my son you know we take him shopping you know he chooses what he wants to wear
32:30right we don't do that for him he needs to be able to build the capacity for himself to design
32:35and develop his own uniqueness as a black man um you know i didn't have that luxury growing up
32:41you know my son is in a privileged position right now and i want him to have that luxury right you know
32:47when he goes to school he chooses the major he wants to do he could be a dancer if he wants to
32:52right but the only thing that i care about whether it's his grooming uh whether it's his education
32:58is that he feels that he can be the best person in the world at what he does
33:02you know how he dresses how he grooms himself how he educates himself and as long as we kind of stick
33:09to that like i think we have a pretty beautiful future ahead you're a smart young man dougie fresh
33:18can you share your thoughts
33:19uh well i don't know i got so caught caught up in his smartness i i don't know you know
33:32kristen walter for president
33:37hey but you know it's like it's like anything though kenny it's like with us man a lot of times i i'm i'm a
33:44i'm a promoter of black meaning that that i do not i am not apologetic about it i am that i i if if
33:56and and like what d said if you cross over to me because you like what i do then that's a beautiful
34:03thing and if it's something that i see i like genuinely sincerely authentically honestly then i
34:11embrace it and pretty much man i just think that that's the way we gotta we have to we have to just
34:19really be honest with ourselves and our children and embrace who we are in our culture and just
34:26really this is this is the time to not try to sell yourself as much as be yourself you see what i'm
34:34saying i think a lot of times we always water down ourselves and did you never had to you never had to
34:43but somebody made you believe you had to and now you see you don't have to because the whole world
34:50is embracing you and even white people are fighting for you because they know what the situation is and
34:59they understand what this whole thing is you know what i mean because i mean i'm just saying this to
35:04make it so real for a second is that you know this system the way that it was built we came from a
35:12school system that was based on us not really loving ourselves they tried to teach us how to not like
35:20ourselves and it's fascinating to me because everything that everybody wants to be around us
35:28is us so now if you just be yourself you your authentic self your honest self you play the music
35:38you like you live the lifestyle you the lifestyle specialist you be who you are you raise your kids
35:44like that i think that that is the key right now for us to make sure that our kids know that it's cool
35:52it's hot it's right to be you don't try to be nobody else be you and that's where we got to take our kids
36:02to me right now man anything else than that i think that we are we are repeating the game that we went
36:10through like we said when we went to school and they tried to make us you know look at them as
36:18as something greater than us you you know what i mean so i think it's important for us to understand
36:23that man and i love that and d nice and leon i want to i really can't wait for your answers to
36:31these questions because d nice start with you you know you really had a phenomenal uh fanfare love affair
36:39with your fans during this club quarantine moment and i know you play for women i mean i know you
36:44play for yourself but i know your your fan base is heavy how has what you do even before the success
36:53of club quarantine how has women played a part of it oh please man i mean women have played a major
37:00part of my entire career there is no d nice without a female fan base you know i'm very clear about that
37:07you know like i wasn't in you know i wasn't the greatest lyricist i wasn't the greatest producer
37:12i wasn't the greatest dj i'm not the greatest scratcher but what i do is i create an experience
37:18that just feels good so everything that i do have it just comes from this feeling of like sexiness you
37:25know like when i play first of all if you take it to like the basics of like entertaining and you
37:32know from a hip-hop perspective you know you can play for dudes all you want and it's not going to
37:39make women dance right but if you play for women and make them feel sexy the dudes are going to want to
37:45dance with them so that's that i take with with how i play music you know um is and and and also to be
37:59honest with you the music that i play happens to be the music that i actually love you know i'm not
38:04really thugged out i'm not shooting anybody i'm not stabbing anyone i don't have any of that i'm playing
38:13actually what i love and it just happens that you know just so happens that it resonates with women
38:18and i'm cool with that i was looking at my i was looking at my numbers the other day and i'm like
38:22damn my instagram following 70 women 30 men i was like man i need to start selling bras and panties
38:31and heels and all this stuff because that's cool my fan base no i i you know it's it's crazy because you
38:42know leon you know they used to say back when i was growing up that naz and i mean this in the most
38:47respectful way they used to say naz is everybody's you know all the women's they would like him to be
38:53the baby father but i know for a fact and i'm talking about for many a women that you are the fan
39:00favorite when it comes how important is women to what you wow um probably 85 percent
39:14but you know to be honest with you to be honest with you
39:44really to play the part in my life in general because see i was the only male in my generation
39:49and so i grew up around women and so i learned to love women before i wanted to have sex with them
39:57i actually genuinely like them and i think women can sense that about me also you got to realize my
40:02family owned the beauty salon my baby owned the beauty salon in mount vernon so i like i knew
40:07everything about women you know say you know women be coming up to me trying to say that this
40:11that's their natural hair and i'll be like yeah right do you know what my family does for a living
40:15weave right i know what you get that's that like the inversion mix yeah so you know i was you know
40:24i always i always was around women i had women friends so it was um yeah without them i mean i don't
40:30know my career would definitely change i remember you know real funny thing we used to have this hot
40:35club i don't know if you ever came though you used to have this crazy club down the canal room
40:39they used to do this reggae sounds go reminisce reggae used to pack them in there on sunday
40:44afternoons it was crazy my band used to perform sometimes and it was packed but with my band was
40:49just starting off right so i told my manager i said yo man they really feeling my music man it's hot
40:56and he had to check me he says dude i'm gonna tell you the truth keep working at it it's the women
41:02that come to your show is why them dudes is showing up okay that's why it's natural man and i'm like oh
41:09okay i had to sit back and say all right right right because because it wasn't my band i would
41:14have been up there too because it was fire up in there but you know women you know you said something
41:20de nice that is um is party 101. you only need to invite women to the party guys will show up
41:27women make the party every every time every time um we're gonna end with this question i'm gonna send
41:38it around to each and each one of you and we'll start with tristan um you know this is a trip you
41:45know tumultuous time this is a time that when we come out of this life as we know will be different
41:53the way people present themselves the way they show up is going to be probably the most important
41:59thing um give a life lesson um where you learn individually how to present yourself and then equate that
42:08to how important after you know this president is out of office and covid is over and we have you know
42:14everybody back outside explain what that is for you yeah we um about about two two years ago we did this
42:24kind of campaign for bevel we got to speak to bishop td jakes and we were talking about like what is it
42:30like what's your experience in the barbershop like and he said something that stuck with me for a long
42:34time he said the reason barbershops are so important is because you see young men old men right and young
42:41men seeing old men in the barbershop suggested survival right like there was a way a future for us
42:49that we can see especially in a world where a lot of us grew up in the way that we did didn't know
42:53you know we would make it out by the time we're 21 right and the barbershop is this institution
42:58to suggest survival for black men resonated with me i think about what we're doing right now man like
43:04some wonderful black brothers just talking right it's it's so important uh that we have these platforms
43:11and forums to talk where you know is dougie fresh was leon d nice talking about being your own unique
43:18self and being your own individual self like how many opportunities do we have to kind of give that
43:24message to other black men right black fathers black sons black brothers um so when i think about grooming
43:31especially like the institution that we're building together right this institution this cultural
43:35institution and grooming our ability to celebrate that uniqueness whether it's old young um you know
43:42different shades of black right uh gender preferences and all that right like just seeing each other and
43:49talking suggest that survival um and we've been doing it for the past 400 plus years we're going to do it
43:54for the next 400 plus years right but it's important that we you know have these platforms and forums
43:59you're able to talk because we don't yeah absolutely dougie final final closing remarks dougie fresh
44:10well i i think that i think on the heels of what the brother my brother just said i think that it's
44:16important for us to talk i think it's it's important for us to celebrate each other and i think that we
44:22should not be jealous and envious of each other and i think that when we see another brother's success we
44:29should we should shine that light on him and we should be happy for him genuinely because he represents
44:35us and we represent them or him and and i and i think in the barbershops and you know you have some
44:44of the realest conversations you could ever have in the barbershops that's that's that's that's one of
44:48the places that i remember growing up in harlem you know what's happening in the street was the new style
44:54who got the new hottest record you know everything you would find out from the barbershops and it would
45:00be a place where we could just talk honestly with each other my closing remarks is that we need to do
45:06this more often we need to get together and share these conversations these experiences um we need to
45:13celebrate each other and we need to appreciate each other because life is very short and unpredictable
45:19as i acknowledge our brother andre around because uh not before that you did an incredible interview
45:25with him kenny and i acknowledge you for that because you did a phenomenal job and given the best
45:31shining of the light of him you know i mean i'm always happy to see my brother leon because he's my man
45:38we always we we just connect like that indeed he's been with me since day one and i'm i can't be happy
45:45i called him up because i was so happy about his success that he had as being this guy who just just
45:52took off like a rocket and and the world is celebrating him at what he does naturally you know
45:59and we're and we're and we're with this brother here man you know he's he's spearheading a whole new
46:04thing so i think we need to be more of that to each other i and over the years i've watched us sometimes be
46:11jealous and envious and this one didn't get that and i wish it was me and we talk about each other
46:18behind the scene i think that all of that is based on low self-esteem and insecurity and we have to be
46:25more supportive of each other and that's my message to anybody that see this show love to each other that
46:32is the key right now man you know try to be more loving and less hateful more grateful less hate
46:44that's hey i love that d nice can you share geez what would be my closing remarks man um um based on
46:53personal experiences it would probably be one of the one of the biggest lessons i've learned and how it
46:58applies to like now is you know obviously you know i was in a rap group with krs one and there was a
47:04point you know when i was roughly around 21 years old when i looked at the back of one of our one of
47:10the bdp albums and i had already i had left the group at that point and looked on the back of the
47:15album and and you know chris had said d nice isn't down with bdp and then i read in an article where chris
47:24said something negative about me and we obviously we're friends now you know but back then it was
47:29hurtful and i wanted to respond and the person who is still one of my best friends said to me
47:35you don't have to respond to that you know like just be who you are and that lesson that i learned
47:41during that time is actually how march 21st 2020 really happened it couldn't have been any other dj
47:49it could only have been me because this was 30 something years of just doing right by people
47:55so when it was a chance for them to come and be with me they felt comfortable doing that because
48:01it was like yo that's my boy this is d that's my boy so my my lesson or what i would say to young
48:08people is always treat people with kindness man you know be be kind man like that that's really what
48:15that's taken me a long way man kindness and just being authentically who i am that's dope that's
48:21dope leon my brother can you share with the people one last thought please yeah you know it's um you
48:29know just listening to everybody and um very happy and um proud to be here with your brothers you know
48:37all you successful in your own right and you know being able to talk to you about real issues like this
48:42is something that you know i really appreciate i want to say that right off the bat each and every
48:46one of you being here um you know just to piggyback on what all you said you know it's about one
48:56appreciate all of us appreciate our success you have to realize that hating of one another being jealous
49:03that's all part of systemic racism they've taught us to be jealous they've narrowed the field for how
49:10many of us can get through so of course we're jealous of the one to two to get through you know
49:15you know remember for so much of hollywood there was only like three brothers out there was even
49:20doing movies i remember when i started acting i was one of the young guys one of the young four or
49:25five that was ever in the movies period you know so of course there was jealousy and i remember going
49:30to screenings and i'd see fellow actors and i'd be so anxious to see them you know all the brothers
49:36and they weren't even talking to me like they was jealous or something and i was like wow
49:41that kind of hit me in a way because i was always happy for everyone else's success because i always
49:45start their success
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