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1:17

Puka, Bella. I'm sure you've noticed some

1:20

changes. How are you talking to? I'm just practicing

1:22

for when I have to tell the dogs about

1:24

the twins, you know, because of... Be fine in

1:26

the spacious third row seat. But, uh, twins? Can

1:28

sleep peacefully, thanks to the rear manual sunshade.

1:30

And what about the... Extra cargo space

1:33

for strollers and dog bets? I guess you're right.

1:35

Come through the hospital now. The contractions

1:37

are getting closer. The three-row Lexus TX.

1:39

Because everyone should feel like the center

1:42

of the center of the universe. Experience

1:44

amazing at your center of the universe. Today

1:49

we're joined by a

1:51

true pioneer from smashing

1:54

records and music to

1:56

building a multi-million

1:58

pound business Grown

2:01

up in South London, it

2:03

was rough. Kona went for

2:05

a really deep situation where

2:07

his mom got shot and

2:09

his step back got killed.

2:12

Carl ran out of the

2:14

room trying to fight him,

2:16

two more gunshots, everything's silent.

2:18

And then at that point

2:20

we was like, do we

2:22

go and do it? So

2:24

yeah, we made junkings and

2:26

we put it out and

2:28

we got a Guinness World

2:30

record for it. Let's talk

2:32

about crept venturing into the

2:34

world of business. Manless baby,

2:36

full of natural goodness. So

2:38

we started formulating it. It

2:40

took a year and a

2:42

half just to formulate. We

2:44

didn't focus on margins. We

2:46

said we're going to build

2:48

a brand. Focus on the

2:50

consumer. So if we can

2:52

trust it for our daughter,

2:54

parents are going to trust

2:56

it. She gives me. that

2:58

driving for us to do

3:00

all these things. I literally

3:02

just vision my daughter and

3:04

I wake up and I'll

3:06

just get to it. Hi,

3:08

I'm Abby Clancy and welcome

3:10

to Exhibit A. Today we're

3:12

joined by a true pioneer,

3:14

an artist who's not only

3:16

dominated the UK rap scene

3:18

with chart-topping success, but has

3:20

also proven himself as a

3:22

visionary entrepreneur from smashing records

3:24

and music to building a

3:26

multi-million pound business. Krept as

3:28

set the standard for what

3:30

it means to excel in

3:32

multiple arenas. Let's unpack the

3:34

story of this unstoppable force.

3:36

Who is Krept? Krept is

3:39

a musician, part of rap

3:41

duo, Krept and Conan, but

3:43

also, I can say now,

3:45

an entrepreneur. It's a good

3:47

word, entrepreneur. Yeah, I like

3:49

saying that. And you are

3:51

the founder, you're the founder

3:53

of Nalas. Yes, co-founder. Romanda's

3:55

baby, baby toiletries, skin, hair

3:57

care. And yeah, we can

3:59

get into this. of that

4:01

and how that came about.

4:03

Okay, so growing up in

4:05

South London, how did that

4:07

shape who you are today?

4:09

That played a big part

4:11

in who I am today.

4:13

Growing up in South London,

4:15

it was rough. Grew up

4:17

in a gang, getting in

4:19

trouble, losing a lot of

4:21

friends. So I've got so

4:23

many friends that are serving

4:25

life sentences now, so many

4:27

friends. I passed away and

4:29

seeing that and growing up

4:31

around that and that kind

4:33

of being the norm. There

4:35

wasn't no examples for us

4:37

and for me I just

4:39

always wanted something better for

4:41

myself like I always used

4:43

to forward think like in

4:45

certain things that my friends

4:47

would be doing I always

4:49

be like I don't think

4:51

you should do that man.

4:53

Where did you think that

4:55

came from because that's that's

4:57

quite a... an inner strength

4:59

to have. Yeah, it is

5:01

because you're literally surrounded by

5:03

violence and crime and that

5:05

is literally, you know, probably

5:08

every single one of my

5:10

friends, you know, been to

5:12

jail, you know, I mean,

5:14

and to be the person that kind

5:16

of wants to stay clever. Yeah, just

5:18

just. do the right thing, I've always

5:20

had that in the back of my

5:22

mind. And obviously you're always going to

5:25

end up being caught up in situations

5:27

and problems, but at the same time

5:29

I always wanted better for myself. And

5:31

I always used to kind of forward

5:33

think and be that person out of

5:36

my friends that would kind of do.

5:38

What did you make to think of

5:40

that? Were they like, oh, you could

5:42

do two shoes or did you feel

5:44

any... peer pressure to because it was

5:47

never it was never a pressure thing

5:49

we're all generally friends and brothers like

5:51

and everybody's different some you know everybody's

5:53

on their own kind of trajectory but

5:55

everyone just knows those creps always, that's

5:58

me, you know, I mean, I'll be

6:00

the one that some of my friends

6:02

will come to you for advice and

6:04

certain things and like how do I

6:06

do this or how do I do

6:09

that? And I think that's good to

6:11

have that friend that is in that

6:13

space or that mentality. So yeah, I've

6:15

always been that person in my friendship

6:17

group. You've openly said that your dad

6:19

was in prison and how that really,

6:22

you know, inspired you to not take

6:24

that path. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Like, I

6:26

know how important a father figure is.

6:28

I think that's why I go so

6:30

hard at being a dad now. Do

6:33

you know what I mean? And the

6:35

impact not having a father had on

6:37

me, do you know what I mean?

6:39

Like, it was just my mom having

6:41

to see my mom struggling by herself

6:44

and trying to... you know, do well

6:46

for me and my brother and do

6:48

her best. Yeah. And not all the

6:50

time she could, it's not easy, do

6:52

you know what I mean? And she

6:55

done well, she came home every night

6:57

after work, hard work, made sure that

6:59

we had food, made sure that we

7:01

ate, made sure that we ate, and

7:03

you know, there was only so much

7:06

she can do, do you know what

7:08

I mean? And him being in jail

7:10

through my teen years. And those years

7:12

are important years, you know, I mean,

7:14

that's when you grow and you learn

7:17

and you kind of shape who you

7:19

are. So yeah, it was obviously unfortunate

7:21

that my dad was in jail. But

7:23

to be honest, now like we've got

7:25

the sickest relationship. So that's good. So

7:27

I make it up for lost time.

7:30

Who were your role models and you

7:32

growing up? I didn't really have role

7:34

models around me. Like I was saying

7:36

before, like there wasn't really no. good

7:38

examples around me everybody was kind of

7:41

doing the same thing and getting caught

7:43

up if anything your role models were

7:45

like the older guys in your area

7:47

that had money yeah and that was

7:49

driving flashy cars you know I mean

7:52

and that that's and you know exactly

7:54

how they got the money do you

7:56

know I mean and that's kind of

7:58

as far as a room would get

8:00

in your surroundings. But I would look

8:03

at like in terms of wanting to

8:05

do more, looking at like UK

8:07

artists like so solid. Back in

8:09

the day like seeing them on

8:11

television and seeing them with all

8:14

their friends on the Brit Awards

8:16

and doing all of this stuff was

8:18

crazy to me because I knew there

8:20

was from South London, you know what

8:23

I mean? And there was a stone

8:25

throwaway and it kind of gave me

8:27

a bit of hope that. you know we can

8:29

kind of make something of ourselves even know

8:31

we're coming from where we're coming from so

8:33

I would say I definitely you know looked

8:35

up to so solid as a kid I

8:38

wanted to be so solid kid and I

8:40

was like oh you know I still so

8:42

solid yeah they were just there was a

8:44

sick back there was a sick and Lisa

8:46

Mafir on his crouch fest last year she

8:48

was amazed I was like oh my god

8:51

she's actually like my proper close friend

8:53

now she's fabulous Yeah and it's crazy

8:55

because I grew up watching Lisa and

8:57

then now me and Lisa's like, do

9:00

I mean, she's the family so. Talk

9:02

me through when you met Conan and how

9:04

you turned your hobby into your incredible

9:06

career. So how I met Conan, it was

9:09

a school football match. My school played his

9:11

school and we had a lot of mutual

9:13

friends as well. He was from Fortinheaf.

9:15

A lot of people that went

9:17

to my school was from Fortinheaf.

9:19

I was from Gypsy Hill, Crystal

9:21

Palace. and we had a lot of

9:24

mutual so we knew of each other but

9:26

when we played each other's schools

9:28

like there was just so much

9:31

banter and then we kind of

9:33

formed a relationship from just playing

9:35

football yeah and from there my

9:38

area and his area kind of

9:40

linked up when we was young

9:42

and we all just kind of

9:44

started rolling together and that's what

9:47

we started off in in our

9:49

little gang in the area and

9:51

we was just doing music for

9:53

fun. Like it wasn't like something that

9:55

we thought would ever make it in music. So

9:57

where would you do it like in your bedroom?

9:59

How is what? What was the setup like?

10:01

Our friend, he's now known as Joe

10:03

Bayer, he does cheeky spot. He lived

10:05

around the corner and he had a

10:07

little studio set up in his bedroom

10:10

with like a little small microphone. And

10:12

we would just record songs in his

10:14

house and me, Conan and my other

10:16

friend Fritz, but he's now, he's in

10:18

disciples, which is crazy because they got

10:20

a massive song like. you know how

10:22

deep is your love for Aaron Harrison

10:25

like these are all people that we

10:27

started with you know I mean that's

10:29

amazing and we just started emcee in

10:31

in my friend's bedroom and we're just

10:33

doing it as a hobby and as

10:35

fun and then we started feeling like

10:37

there was a bit of traction because

10:40

back in a day to send music

10:42

you have to do it through infrared

10:44

like where you have to put your

10:46

phone next to each other for it

10:48

to transfer over and yeah it was

10:50

crazy like before you know then it

10:53

was Bluetooth and But it used to

10:55

spread, so like people used to hear

10:57

it, a lot of people from our

10:59

area would be like, oh, the song's

11:01

sick, and it would spread around our

11:03

area, and we kind of realized, like,

11:05

hold on, like, there's something here, do

11:08

you know what I mean? And there's

11:10

something here, do you know what I

11:12

mean? And there was a lot more

11:14

of us in our group, like, we

11:16

all used to do it, like, there's

11:18

something here, you know what I mean?

11:20

And so people, and Conan. Because one

11:23

of those mixtape went viral didn't it

11:25

on YouTube like 5 million plays and...

11:27

So after our second mixtape we dropped

11:29

a freestyle Otis over Jay-Z and Carnius.

11:31

And you're allowed to do that? You're

11:33

allowed to use their songs? You don't

11:35

get to... Yes, no, but so this

11:38

is the thing. So when you put

11:40

it up it says like, are you

11:42

allowed to, do you have the rights

11:44

to have promo on this song? You're

11:46

like, yeah. We just said, yeah, because

11:48

remember, we don't know anything about anything

11:50

about... Anything, we just we had no

11:53

idea this was like our first one

11:55

of our first videos that we put

11:57

on a YouTube channel like We had

11:59

no idea. Because before we would use

12:01

like SB TV, Jamal Edwards, his platforms

12:03

and we would put our free stars

12:05

up through that. So this was the

12:08

first time we kind of put something

12:10

on our own channel. So you just

12:12

said yes yes yes yes and then

12:14

it just literally went viral got

12:16

like three to five million views but in

12:18

like a couple days. It was mad and

12:21

for a time like that before things was

12:23

like considered viral. Sure. Like that was a

12:25

big deal for us and then. We went

12:27

on tour of Skepton and then while we

12:30

was on tour, we just got a notification.

12:32

We was meant to get paid from it.

12:34

It was like, this is the day we

12:36

get paid and we were going to get

12:39

paid. And then the day we were going to

12:41

get paid, it was like videos gone.

12:43

Oh no. That's so annoying. But at the

12:45

same time, the damage was done, it was

12:47

already out there. People knew about it.

12:49

We started getting bookings and

12:52

shows from it. So yeah, so it

12:54

started off as a hobby. So it

12:56

started off as a hobby. We're gaining

12:58

like a little mini fan base. Yeah.

13:00

And then we decided like,

13:02

let's kind of take this a

13:04

bit serious. And then Corona went

13:06

for a really deep situation where

13:08

his mom got shot and his

13:11

step like, got killed. I can't

13:13

believe that. Ended up homeless,

13:15

like, literally had nothing. And

13:17

we would literally fight over the

13:20

last piece of chicken because we

13:22

never had no money to. buy

13:24

more food you know what I mean like

13:26

we literally had how old are

13:28

you at this point when not even

13:30

we're like you know like 20 I say

13:33

about 20 and we was yeah 2021

13:35

I'd say was this mom okay yeah

13:37

she's fine now my god it was

13:39

just traumatic you know I mean

13:41

and she lost her husband because

13:44

he got killed and you know we

13:46

and this was the time when we

13:48

was doing music and then at

13:50

that point we was like Do we

13:53

go and do music or do we

13:55

go and retaliate? There's something

13:57

as big and as traumatic as that

13:59

how... How did you both find the

14:01

strength to not retaliate and go, right,

14:03

we're going to focus our energy on

14:05

making incredible music? Because like, you know,

14:08

during that time, it's like, you don't

14:10

know who you done it. Like, it

14:12

was still like, so up in the

14:14

air, what happened to kind of done

14:16

this? And then it was like, if

14:18

we retaliate, we could be retaliating on

14:20

the wrong people or whatever, there was

14:23

so much thoughts. And then it was

14:25

like, but there's this that is picking

14:27

up some sort of momentum. if we

14:29

focus on this like you know a

14:31

whole life can change and a whole

14:33

trajectory can change and we just literally

14:35

made that decision and said you know

14:37

what let's do the positive thing and

14:40

was that you was that led by

14:42

you do you think from no it

14:44

was it was it was it was

14:46

both for us it was other people

14:48

it was like it was there was

14:50

so much different opinions and you know

14:52

you've got some friends that are like

14:54

no we've got to retaliate and we've

14:57

got some friends that are like you've

14:59

got something going on for yourselves and

15:01

then we're kind of having it was

15:03

so difficult man like as you can

15:05

imagine there were so many thoughts and

15:07

emotions during that time but we obviously

15:09

made the right decision and said you

15:12

know what let's give it a shot

15:14

then at least and what's crazy the

15:16

next thing that we done after that

15:18

went viral. Like so if it didn't

15:20

we might have before I forget the

15:22

music or whatever but we was just

15:24

like let's give it one last shot

15:26

from there was like a whole kind

15:29

of life and trajectory changed and we

15:31

was able to focus on the music

15:33

and So you were still unsigned at

15:35

this point. Yeah, yeah, it was still

15:37

unsigned. You know our kind of trajectory

15:39

changed and we did have people lame

15:41

was interested but at the same time

15:43

It wasn't really looking at rap

15:46

music then. So they was trying to

15:48

tell us we need to do this,

15:50

we need to get a girl in

15:52

our group, get a singer in our

15:55

group, like maybe be more like end-ups,

15:57

get a guitarist and we was just

15:59

like, what? That's not us. That's not

16:01

us like. How hard is it staying

16:03

authentic when you have got like major

16:06

people saying yeah yeah like the heads

16:08

of record label saying you need to

16:10

change? It's hard it's kind of difficult

16:12

but you know fortunately for us we

16:14

had like good people around us to

16:17

guide us and tell us like just

16:19

don't listen to them and one of

16:21

those people was skeptical and Jamal. So

16:23

we just went on tour with Skeptor,

16:25

so off of the back of the

16:28

back of it, Skeptor bought us on

16:30

tour. And he paid it, didn't he?

16:32

Yeah, he paid us, like that was

16:34

our first, like we thought he was

16:36

going to go and he was going

16:39

to do it for, we would have

16:41

done it for free, you know, I

16:43

mean, just for promo. But he paid

16:45

us for every show, there was even

16:47

doing club appearances, he paid us, and

16:50

then after the tour of the tour,

16:52

him and Jama said, you know, come

16:54

and meet us in it, skeptics was

16:56

like, come to my house. So we

16:58

went to his house and we was

17:01

kind of explaining the situation with like

17:03

the labels saying that this is what

17:05

we should do and all this stuff

17:07

and just kind of speaking to him

17:09

about it. And he was just like,

17:11

forget all of those people. So forget

17:14

the labels, forget the labels, forget radio,

17:16

because we was trying to get radio

17:18

TV. He was like, forget everything, forget

17:20

all of those people. Focus on your

17:22

fans. make music for your fans and

17:25

do it yourself. You don't need a

17:27

label to do what you need to

17:29

do. Do you know what I mean?

17:31

And then we literally sat there and

17:33

was like, you know what, you're right.

17:36

And then he said, here's a radio

17:38

plugger, independently, you don't need a label

17:40

to do this. And here's a TV

17:42

plugger. Gave us the contacts. We then

17:44

said, cool. We went and made that

17:47

with. next to nothing, you know, I

17:49

mean, we didn't have anything at that

17:51

time. We had a little bit of

17:53

money that we made like our own

17:55

merch to. fund it so you can

17:58

pay for it and kind of fund

18:00

the studio and so that's your entrepreneurial

18:02

vibes coming out there yeah do you

18:04

know what I mean built our merch

18:06

to fund the music stuff so yeah

18:09

we made young kings and we said

18:11

we're not gonna listen to any label

18:13

any radio no one we're gonna do

18:15

what we want to do yeah and

18:17

we made it and we put it

18:19

out and we got a Guinness record

18:22

for it that's amazing highest independent chatting

18:24

album ever in the UK so that

18:26

changed everything for us. Of course and

18:28

because I know you're very passionate about

18:30

opening doors for young aspiring artists because

18:33

you said there was no one to

18:35

teach you like your your career could

18:37

have been a lot different if Skepta

18:39

didn't step in and help or that

18:41

that tape didn't go viral that stage

18:44

like how do you know as a

18:46

young musician what to do, where to

18:48

go, who to speak to? I think

18:50

now it's a bit easier because there's

18:52

a lot more examples and there's so

18:55

many... you know successful artists but when

18:57

we was coming up there wasn't you

18:59

know a lot of people that made

19:01

it with the kind of rap music

19:03

that we was trying to get through

19:06

the dodge you know I mean so

19:08

it was it was hard and they

19:10

was trying to block previous artists like

19:12

you had artists like gigs that had

19:14

massive record talking artists and then you

19:17

know you had police trying to give

19:19

him problems and all of this stuff

19:21

they were trying to put a block

19:23

on him so They were making it

19:25

difficult for people that was coming before

19:27

us, that was opening doors for us,

19:30

you know what I mean? Yeah. You

19:32

know, for us, it just felt like

19:34

it was such a groundbreaking moment for

19:36

us because I'll never forget when we

19:38

dropped Young Kings and we got the

19:41

chart position, like we ended up on

19:43

all the playlist, TV, everyone's like now

19:45

they're like, yeah, doesn't that wind you

19:47

up? It does. Because I've been in

19:49

situations where it's like... You know, going

19:52

to an event, a certain designer wouldn't

19:54

want to dress you because you're kind

19:56

of a no-one, and then all of

19:58

a sudden you do better. you do

20:00

things where people like you've got a

20:03

million views on something then everyone I'm

20:05

like no fuck off yeah you didn't

20:07

want to help me at the start

20:09

yeah but you know how do you

20:11

tell the radio to fuck off you

20:14

can't now you look I can't see

20:16

the vision but at the same time

20:18

I get it you know they didn't

20:20

have an example of because for them

20:22

it was like we can't play records

20:25

like don't waste my time on radio

20:27

and we're like okay and then when

20:29

it blew up It was like, yeah,

20:31

let's put it on radio. And do

20:33

you know what I mean? Like, it

20:35

always takes someone to break some sort

20:38

of barrier down. And, you know, fortunately

20:40

we was able to break that barrier

20:42

down that we was facing where they

20:44

didn't want to playlist certain songs. So

20:46

do you think you've contributed to how

20:49

the rap industry has evolved over the

20:51

years? Yeah, I'll definitely say we've contributed,

20:53

you know what I mean? Like, I

20:55

feel like, you know, we're all building

20:57

this big house, and I feel like

21:00

we've definitely laid on bricks on bricks.

21:02

for you know the next people to

21:04

come and build and Continue this this

21:06

thing that we call the rap scene

21:08

because at the time, you know, they

21:11

wasn't really letting in multiple artists at

21:13

once It was one at a time.

21:15

You know, I mean everyone had like

21:17

their moments, you know, you had chip

21:19

had had and it was like chip

21:22

was the star of the show and

21:24

then you know, you had the tinky

21:26

striders Yeah, tiny tempers and then you

21:28

know what I'm saying wretch but it

21:30

was all kind it didn't seem like

21:33

There were so many people at once

21:35

it was just felt like everyone was

21:37

having their moments And then when you

21:39

look at it now, there's so many

21:41

stars now. There's so many successful rappers

21:44

and artists at the same time and

21:46

so many people's doing well and like

21:48

it's a completely different You know game

21:50

to what it was then yeah, you

21:52

know, I feel like us when we

21:54

did do the young King's thing and

21:57

that kind of making labels and TV

21:59

or radio, see like, yo, the rap

22:01

music, it can work. And there is

22:03

a demand for it. I think... definitely

22:05

contributed to that as well as the

22:08

people that contributed before us to make

22:10

us know that it was possible. Do

22:12

you know I mean? I feel like

22:14

everybody kind of you know took their

22:16

hammering the door down and then you

22:19

know we took our turn and we

22:21

took our turn and made it easier

22:23

for the next person and it's like

22:25

a domino effect and I feel like

22:27

we played definitely played an important role

22:30

in that. Okay so let's talk about

22:32

crept venture and into the world of

22:34

business and be coming. an entrepreneur with

22:36

a multi-million pound business. Did you ever,

22:38

you know, imagine that? And where did

22:41

the idea come from? So I've always,

22:43

I've always wanted to do business. Did

22:45

I think that it would be in

22:47

baby toiletries? From rapper to baby skinket?

22:49

How did that go down with you?

22:52

All your mates? Everyone's just mad proud.

22:54

Like, I think for me doing that,

22:56

it made everybody realize like we can

22:58

kind of do anything. you know like

23:00

it doesn't limit us on what we

23:02

can do because I feel like where

23:05

we're coming from it always feels like

23:07

there's only certain avenues we can take

23:09

yeah yeah me going in doing baby

23:11

shows you you can go down any

23:13

avenues you know I mean as long

23:16

as it's authentic to you do you

23:18

know I mean like Nala's baby came

23:20

about it wasn't something where I was

23:22

like I just want to start a

23:24

baby skincare brand sure that was never

23:27

the the the thing and I feel

23:29

like with business you've always got to

23:31

do a business that you can really

23:33

vote for that applies to your life

23:35

or relates to you in some way

23:38

otherwise you know people see through it

23:40

otherwise do you get what I'm saying

23:42

yeah so like and that's how I've

23:44

always looked at things so I always

23:46

thought yeah you know when the business

23:49

idea makes sense I would I would

23:51

do it you know I mean and

23:53

before that you know you'd be open

23:55

a restaurant and that was crazy that

23:57

was difficult and we learned so much

24:00

from that but everything I learned from

24:02

that I was able to apply to.

24:04

Yeah. No, I was baby. What challenges

24:06

did you face when you were, because

24:08

it was creps and cones? Yeah, yeah,

24:10

yeah. Challenger, like the initial... challenge was

24:13

our friend who we launched, we was

24:15

planning to launch the business with and

24:17

like he was the person doing all

24:19

the back end and you know in

24:21

terms of staffing, accounting, finance, stock, all

24:24

of this stuff just running the business.

24:26

He passed away the week that we

24:28

was going to look to market and

24:30

opening the restaurant and we opened the

24:32

restaurant without the person that was there

24:35

with us every step of the way.

24:37

we had to learn on the spot

24:39

so people thought we was in the

24:41

restaurant because of PR and it was

24:43

like no we have to be it

24:46

because we literally have to make this

24:48

work because you know our friend and

24:50

we're grieving at the same time as

24:52

opening this restaurant so it was so

24:54

difficult because we literally jumped in the

24:57

pool and didn't know how to swim

24:59

in it. And we had to just

25:01

try and learn on the go and

25:03

you know. As you can imagine, our

25:05

restaurant was quite big as well, it

25:08

was like two and a half thousand

25:10

square foot, so it wasn't like a

25:12

small restaurant. It's a massive restaurant, massive

25:14

overheads and making sure that we can

25:16

run it and we didn't have anybody

25:18

to run it. So we're running it.

25:21

I'm doing payroll, I'm doing the accounting,

25:23

I'm doing everybody's schedules. And who funded

25:25

all of that? We did. We funded

25:27

it. And did you lose it all?

25:29

We never lost it all now because

25:32

it done well in terms of like

25:34

we've in our first year We've done

25:36

we've done like over a million pounds

25:38

and and stuff so It wasn't like

25:40

a complete like oh my god, but

25:43

at the same time We wasn't able

25:45

to keep it going because we generally

25:47

didn't know how to do it. You

25:49

know what I mean? And it just

25:51

became way beyond what we could do

25:54

and the thing is with a restaurant

25:56

you kind of have to be there

25:58

You can't just leave it to people

26:00

to run because of people stealing from

26:02

the tool you have. Yeah, I used

26:05

to work. I used to work in

26:07

a restaurant. The owner has to be

26:09

there. They have to be there? Like

26:11

the staff were nick and steaks. You

26:13

know, paying cash, not putting it in

26:16

the till, not wringing it through, pouring

26:18

themselves strings. We couldn't be there. No?

26:20

Obviously, we've got our careers, you know

26:22

what I mean? So we kind of

26:24

realized, like, you have to actually be

26:26

here. Yeah. And we couldn't be here.

26:29

And it was trying to balance it.

26:31

Like, I lost so much weight. I

26:33

was ill all the time, like, like,

26:35

it started taking a toll. a great

26:37

business and a great concept and you

26:40

know it's a gold mine and you're

26:42

just going to throw it away and

26:44

it was just like this isn't worth

26:46

the stress yeah and you know the

26:48

amount of effort that we was and

26:51

pour into this restaurant to keep it

26:53

going it just wasn't worth it it

26:55

wasn't worth the mental no for me

26:57

like it just how did you find

26:59

the strength to say right we're calling

27:02

liquids We just had that conversation with

27:04

our host and said, because that's hard

27:06

to do if you know something could

27:08

be really good. That was the problem

27:10

that we was facing. Yeah. Because even

27:13

during lockdown, that was like, oh my

27:15

God, like our whole restaurant was about

27:17

the vibe. Like people would come there,

27:19

we'd have events on Sunday, and like,

27:21

yeah. Everything was about being there. So

27:24

when COVID happened, it was just like,

27:26

but then it was the voices of

27:28

what you've done so well with it.

27:30

kept it going throughout COVID and then

27:32

you know when COVID came out COVID

27:35

we kept it going and then we

27:37

was just like this is impossible to

27:39

maintain this and doing what we're doing

27:41

with our careers and our life in

27:43

general it's just impossible like we couldn't

27:45

physically I wish I could be two

27:48

people at once but I couldn't. And

27:50

did you have your baby at this

27:52

point as well? Yeah so it's like

27:54

managing a music career being a dad

27:56

then I've just become a dad and

27:59

like... I was thinking like I won't

28:01

be able to put the effort I

28:03

want to put into my daughter. Yeah.

28:05

Like there was just so many factors

28:07

that it just didn't feel like it

28:10

was worth continuing for us, you know

28:12

what I mean? So we sat. but

28:14

at the same time like what we

28:16

learned from it was invaluable I would

28:18

actually not even take it back yeah

28:21

like everything that I learned from that

28:23

was literally everything I was able to

28:25

put into what did you learn in

28:27

terms of team yeah staffing even the

28:29

way the best way to fund something

28:32

so you can really you know do

28:34

things on a high level like instead

28:36

of just you know, putting your own

28:38

money and getting investors. The whole way

28:40

for yourself, there's ways to partner up

28:43

with people to, do you know what

28:45

I mean? Like partnerships and teamwork is

28:47

the main thing that I learned with

28:49

when it comes to running a business

28:51

and who is involved in the business

28:53

to help this business actually do well

28:56

to take the stress away, having... you

28:58

know experience people in specific fields like

29:00

we're focusing on hiring waiters when we

29:02

should have been focusing on hiring operations

29:04

manager someone that you know can create

29:07

our booklet of how we want to

29:09

scale and franchise it for example and

29:11

someone that's strategy like we were just

29:13

focusing on we need a new way

29:15

we need a new chef we need

29:18

like and that wasn't the way to

29:20

kind of go about it was like

29:22

getting people in that just know how

29:24

to run operation and have a future

29:26

vision for something rather than just you're

29:29

all fighting for your lives in day

29:31

today day today yeah and proper forward

29:33

thinking so I learned that was like

29:35

the biggest lesson in terms of of

29:37

doing that and even yeah the funding

29:40

side of it like you know we

29:42

could have gone about it in a

29:44

much different way partnered with someone yeah

29:46

proper funding proper you know and even

29:48

down to we pick the location we

29:51

pick the location we pick the location

29:53

It wasn't the best location that we

29:55

picked, we could have, you know, had

29:57

someone that could, had a bit of

29:59

experience. Let's go here, this is an

30:01

up and common area, that's exactly like,

30:04

and, you know, this is where the

30:06

best rates are, and this, there's so

30:08

much we could have done. but we

30:10

just didn't. But I learned that from

30:12

that. And I was able to apply

30:15

that to Nala's baby. So when people

30:17

think Nala's baby is flying, it's because

30:19

all of that stuff that I learned,

30:21

I literally applied it to Nala's baby.

30:23

So where did the idea for Nala's

30:26

baby come from? So Nala's mom Sasha

30:28

was pregnant with Nala, and she just

30:30

became like really conscious of stuff that

30:32

she was putting on her skin. Yeah.

30:34

you know, what you eat and putting

30:37

your skin, it could seep into it.

30:39

Yeah, of course. All of this stuff.

30:41

I was a nightmare for all that.

30:43

Yeah, so she was in a house

30:45

whipping up her own, you know, sheer

30:48

butters and the house was just full

30:50

of different concoctions of things that she

30:52

was making and saying I'm not putting

30:54

any of this on my skin, and

30:56

then when we would get like gifts

30:59

from people for people for when Nala

31:01

was born, they would send like loads

31:03

of products, skin care products, hair care

31:05

products, hair care products. And someone said

31:07

to us, like, you need to look

31:09

into this app. It's called Think Day

31:12

and Yaka. Oh, I've got Yuka. Yeah,

31:14

yeah. I drive my family mad at

31:16

that. Imagine getting loads of gifts and

31:18

we're putting all of these products into

31:20

the Yaka app and the Think Day

31:23

app and it's saying poor, poor, poor,

31:25

poor, everything's poor. Like, these are all

31:27

in the shelf in the supermarket. I

31:29

know. It's terrible. Because people are more

31:31

conscious about what they eat. I think

31:34

they are but you forget about what

31:36

you actually put on your skin your

31:38

body and that stuff seeps. Yeah. Do

31:40

you know what I mean? So we

31:42

as you can imagine all the gifts

31:45

that we're getting are from all these

31:47

brands. And we're just like we're not

31:49

using none of this. I'm not using

31:51

any of these products and we're looking

31:53

at the ingredients and you know what

31:56

they can cause. Yeah. We're just like

31:58

there's no way I'm putting any of

32:00

these brands on my daughter and she's

32:02

born. So that stem the idea of

32:04

why don't we create our create our

32:07

own one. that we can trust. So

32:09

if we can trust it for our

32:11

daughter, parents are going to trust it.

32:13

So... that was when we used like

32:15

the light bulb moment said let's let's

32:17

do it because we was like why

32:20

doesn't it exist why is there not

32:22

a product range where every single products

32:24

excellent excellent excellent excellent yeah didn't exist

32:26

and we was like we're gonna make

32:28

that product so how did the process

32:31

start so because obviously you're not making

32:33

it all in your kitchen no way

32:35

this this is where we was just

32:37

like we're gonna do this we're gonna

32:39

do this properly yeah you know Of

32:42

course, we've never done this before in

32:44

it, but at the same time we

32:46

know how much care and love we're

32:48

going to put into this thing. So

32:50

it was about research. Everything was just

32:53

about research. We're researching every single ingredient

32:55

that's in all of these products, the

32:57

dews, the don'ts, you know, products with

32:59

mineral oils, you know, sulfates, synthetics and

33:01

all of this stuff and finding out

33:04

what all of these ingredients are, finding

33:06

out all the good, clean, natural alternatives.

33:08

then it was about, okay, we need

33:10

to formulate this range, do you know

33:12

what I mean? And we, there was

33:15

someone that I had a relationship with,

33:17

we was cool, we spoke about doing

33:19

some other business stuff, but they've had

33:21

business previously in the sector of supermarkets

33:23

and stuff. So I went to them

33:26

and I was like, look, I've got

33:28

this idea, there's a massive gap for

33:30

it. Like what are you saying, you

33:32

think you can help me on it?

33:34

And they was like, It's crazy because

33:36

I literally met a manufacturer that does

33:39

this stuff. They have their own lab,

33:41

everything. Time and again? Again, and they

33:43

just make them like a couple weeks

33:45

prior to me asking. And so if

33:47

I asked a couple weeks prior, they

33:50

would have been like, no, I don't

33:52

know anyone. And then so we've spoke

33:54

to this manufacturer to say like, we've

33:56

got this idea. And they was like,

33:58

yeah, let's do it kind of thing.

34:01

So we started formulating it. It took

34:03

a year and it took a year

34:05

and a year and a year and

34:07

a half. just to formulate just because

34:09

it was so fuzzy with the ingredients.

34:12

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34:58

will go through the ingredients for like,

35:01

no, not this one, not this one,

35:03

not this one. And then it was

35:05

even down to the point where there

35:07

was like a stumbling block that we

35:09

had where they were saying, you know,

35:12

for your ingredients to a product of

35:14

foam for your bath products, you have

35:16

to have this new like. And we

35:18

was like, there must be a alternative

35:21

to it was like, you need a

35:23

synthetic ingredient for it to foam. And

35:25

it was that just hold fire, I'm

35:27

not proving it. like we're going to

35:30

go and do our own research, then

35:32

we went and found something called a

35:34

collegiate plant that is a natural foaming

35:36

agent. Oh wow. Went back to them

35:38

and was like we found an ingredient

35:41

that's a natural foaming agent and the

35:43

neighbor's just like no these guys are

35:45

very serious about what they're putting in

35:47

this product because we want every single

35:50

product to rate excellent on these apps

35:52

and you know score zero and think

35:54

they're excellent on a yacao. It's like

35:56

we're not compromising. How long it takes?

35:58

How eager we are to get this

36:01

out? I'm not compromising on the ingredients

36:03

and the products because that is what's

36:05

going to carry this brand. Are you

36:07

the first brand in the UK to

36:10

achieve this? Yeah, I will. Not that

36:12

I haven't found, I even put it

36:14

to the test the other day, I

36:16

said, if anyone can find me a

36:18

baby range, that every product rates zero

36:21

or every product rates excellent. People are

36:23

throwing at me, then I'd repose saying,

36:25

no, no, there wasn't one. That's incredible,

36:27

isn't it? There wasn't one. I couldn't

36:30

find them, I'm not saying it isn't,

36:32

because there might be one in the

36:34

deep corners of the earth somewhere in

36:36

the country in the country, but in

36:39

general that. How do they go about

36:41

the shelf life of these things then?

36:43

Because do they do they go off?

36:45

Yeah, everything's got a cell by date,

36:47

but then you need you need a

36:50

preservative in there. Yes, but you can

36:52

have a natural one. You can have

36:54

a clean natural alternative preservatives than the

36:56

ones that they usually use. So that's

36:59

why like our products will be like

37:01

99% because we would have that 1%

37:03

for preservative. Such a clever idea. in

37:05

order to stop bacteria and fungus growing

37:07

and all that stuff. So it's actually

37:10

beneficial to have it in some capacity

37:12

and to give it shelf life. So

37:14

we just made it to the absolute

37:16

best you can possibly formulate a product

37:19

or you know what I mean. So

37:21

that was like our real main focus

37:23

for a year and a half. Anyone

37:25

else would have probably been like, this

37:28

is taking too long. But this was

37:30

in lockdown. So we had all the

37:32

time in the world to make. Here's

37:34

me making banana bread and you're creating

37:36

a multi-million bag. I'm doing Joe Wicks

37:39

like kangaroo jump thinking. I wish I

37:41

would have been doing that. Yeah so

37:43

yeah in the real world that probably

37:45

would have taken us four or five

37:48

years to formulate but we had all

37:50

the time in the world that lockdown.

37:52

Fab. So a year and a half

37:54

and then when we took it to

37:56

boots and we said look what they

37:59

were crazy. They just got it straight

38:01

away. They understood it. They was like

38:03

there clearly is you know a product

38:05

that product that is needed in a

38:08

brand that is there's a gap for

38:10

it because it doesn't exist. So we

38:12

said we're going to be that brand

38:14

and we wanted to create a brand

38:17

like that parents can just trust. So

38:19

you know. everything that we're going to

38:21

bring out, everything that we've been bringing

38:23

out, it's all been the same, all

38:25

excellent, excellent, excellent, excellent, excellent. There isn't,

38:28

we are not compromising on anything that

38:30

we bring to market, you know what

38:32

I mean? So we want to be

38:34

that brand that parents can trust and

38:37

that, you know, appeals to all kids,

38:39

like, you know, I mean, like from

38:41

different skin types, you know, different hair

38:43

types, like we're making a brand for

38:45

everyone, you know what I mean? How

38:48

did you go about that? I read

38:50

somewhere that like Marcus Rushford is a

38:52

investor. Yeah, yeah, he is. So we,

38:54

before we got investors, we spent, from

38:57

about a quarter million pound developing it,

38:59

just putting money into testing, to perfecting

39:01

the product because for one, and at

39:03

that point we didn't even know how

39:06

much it was going to cost to

39:08

really do this. We were just focusing

39:10

on just building the product and getting

39:12

the products away. you know spending tens

39:14

of thousands of building and building and

39:17

building this product and then once we

39:19

finally got it and once we got

39:21

the listing with boots and then we

39:23

found out this is how much boots

39:26

are going to be ordering and all

39:28

of it was like okay this is

39:30

really expensive to run this is a

39:32

cash flow heavy business so the best

39:34

way to do it where you don't

39:37

feel limited because I want to compete

39:39

and I want everyone to know about

39:41

this brand so it's not like I

39:43

wanted to come in and start small,

39:46

we're starting in boots, I want to

39:48

compete with the biggest brands, you know

39:50

what I mean? So I said, if

39:52

I want to do this and learn

39:54

from my last business, if I get

39:57

investment, I can actually stand the chance

39:59

of competing and actually market is properly

40:01

and actually compete, you know what I

40:03

mean? So that's when we was like,

40:06

all right, if we're going to do

40:08

this, let's go and get investment and

40:10

get investment and really give this thing

40:12

a shot and compete. No. So we've

40:15

done just an angel investment which is

40:17

individuals investing in... So just utilizing people

40:19

that are new and network and asking

40:21

people who they knew if anyone's interested

40:23

in investing in businesses and just really

40:26

networking and finding people that are willing

40:28

to invest in business. And I didn't

40:30

ask for investment until we got boots

40:32

until the concept was there and there

40:35

was a real shot at the market.

40:37

I wouldn't have asked for investment to

40:39

develop the product and develop the idea.

40:41

I would put that money in so

40:43

people know that I believe in what

40:46

I'm putting my money in. And I'll

40:48

go to a point where you can

40:50

see that there's a viable route to

40:52

market here. So that's when I asked

40:55

for the investment. And then... Similar to

40:57

like your music career, really. Yeah, because

40:59

obviously this has cost hundreds of thousand

41:01

pounds to, you know, bring to... the

41:04

product, but you wanted this to be

41:06

accessible to everyone, everyone's baby, children should

41:08

have Nala's baby. That's important to you.

41:10

Yeah, 100% because you know, everything that's

41:12

good for you is always expensive, I

41:15

feel like. So I kind of wanted

41:17

to break that kind of barrier down

41:19

and make something that even though... had

41:21

people in our ears saying, no, you

41:24

should sell it for way more. Like,

41:26

look at the other products that have

41:28

similar ingredients. They're going for like 30

41:30

pound, 40 pound. And we was like,

41:32

no, we're gonna make a product and

41:35

make the price point as accessible as

41:37

possible, make something that's good for an

41:39

accessible price point. Because we think that's

41:41

good for you's always expensive. We don't

41:44

want to be that brand. We want.

41:46

to be similar prices to other brands

41:48

in our in our field but we

41:50

are just 10 times better and cleaner

41:53

and more natural and that was the

41:55

whole E for some there is a

41:57

risk because with that it's about volume

41:59

yeah I have to do volume for

42:01

that to work otherwise how many bottles

42:04

do you sell a year? Yeah no

42:06

I think our first year we probably

42:08

sold about half a million bottles of

42:10

a million bottles And then I think

42:13

this year we're probably going to do

42:15

probably like one and a half million

42:17

bottles or something. It's fantastic. Congrats. Great,

42:19

thank you. It's great, great. But our

42:21

point was it kind of manifested and

42:24

people understood what we'd done, do you

42:26

know what I mean? And we got

42:28

the support from parents and we're getting

42:30

the support from parents where they've seen

42:33

that this product. like the actual price

42:35

point of what anybody selling products at

42:37

this level yes you know you're 2030

42:39

pound but we had made it you

42:42

know five pound fifty five for a

42:44

bottle do you know what I mean

42:46

so we tried to make this a

42:48

breaking down a lot of barriers with

42:50

this yeah yeah no definitely man and

42:53

just forward thinking and thinking about the

42:55

consumer this whole brand we focused on

42:57

the consumer and parents like we didn't

42:59

focus on margins, we didn't focus on

43:02

any of that, we said we're going

43:04

to build a brand, focus on the

43:06

consumer first, put the consumers first and

43:08

you know hopefully they understand the big

43:10

risk that we've taken with this and

43:13

in terms of pointing out at this

43:15

low price point for the ingredients that

43:17

you're getting in the product that you're

43:19

getting and making it as accessible as

43:22

possible and it has proven to work,

43:24

do you know what I mean? Sorry

43:26

to ask but obviously then you split

43:28

up with your babies. Mom how is

43:30

co-parenting and running a business together? Now

43:33

we're cool because you know what it

43:35

is we put our daughter first before

43:37

anything like we've always done that even

43:39

from the moment we broke up every

43:42

decision that we've made regardless of feelings

43:44

or motions or any of that we

43:46

just put our daughter first so any

43:48

decision that we make we just think

43:51

what would be best for Nala and

43:53

we make our decision based on that

43:55

so you know She's a gorgeous baby.

43:57

No, like she's big now. She's a

43:59

big woman. I don't know who she

44:02

thinks she is right. I've got two

44:04

of them. Girls are hard. are. She's

44:06

needy. But I love it because, you

44:08

know what I mean? She looks identical

44:11

to you, doesn't she? That's what everyone

44:13

says. Yeah, she does. She looks like

44:15

my baby pictures. Anyone want to start

44:17

their own business? What advice would you

44:19

give to them? I have like a

44:22

few like at the top of my

44:24

like to-do list for anyone that wants

44:26

to start business. My first one would

44:28

be networking. I think it's

44:31

so important to network, like in any

44:33

room that you're in when there's loads

44:35

of people in there, my thing is

44:37

is finding out who's who, who does

44:39

what, what do you do? Yeah. Just

44:42

introducing myself, because you never know how

44:44

that could align with you, you know,

44:46

later down or in the future, do

44:48

you know what I mean? Like, for

44:50

example, if the person that I went

44:53

to to start on this baby with

44:55

didn't network with someone that does skinket,

44:57

even though it's nothing they was doing,

44:59

they was doing at the time. they

45:01

wouldn't have been able to, do you

45:04

know what I mean? So you never

45:06

know what is going to be your

45:08

trajectory of life. So I just think

45:10

like networking and finding out who's who

45:13

is like my number one because my

45:15

network has been what's helped me with

45:17

my success. And I don't mean, I'm

45:19

not even talking about celebrity network, I'm

45:21

talking about just networking with individuals that

45:24

do great things or that are in

45:26

different spaces, different markets and that's what.

45:28

I believe in like networking like I'll

45:30

go into a room and find out

45:32

who runs this place or who's the

45:35

person behind this place and then introducing

45:37

myself to a person because you just

45:39

never know do you know I mean

45:41

yeah I think you just can't be

45:43

afraid to network I know it's hard

45:46

for probably people that are a bit

45:48

more introverted but I'd say like just

45:50

step out of that and network even

45:52

if you feel like you're getting imposter

45:54

syndrome yeah had Imposa syndrome so many

45:57

times like, but at the same time.

45:59

That's how you should feel. And if

46:01

you don't feel that that means you're

46:03

not... It can be a driving force,

46:05

can't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. So

46:08

I would say that your team, like

46:10

your team is so important when it

46:12

comes to running a business. Don't try

46:14

to be the jack of all trades

46:17

and I'm going to try and run

46:19

this business by myself. Like if you're

46:21

not good at certain things, get people

46:23

in that are good at that. So

46:25

you can focus on what you are

46:28

good at. Identifying your... weaknesses I think

46:30

takes a lot because some people you

46:32

know they just feel like I want

46:34

to do everything yeah if you're not

46:36

good at that don't go and focus

46:39

your energy trying to do that get

46:41

someone in that can partner up with

46:43

people don't try and own a hundred

46:45

percent of something if you can't yeah

46:47

if it'll be to the detriment of

46:50

whatever is you're trying to do you

46:52

know I mean that would you rather

46:54

own you know 50% of a multi

46:56

multi million pound company or a hundred

46:58

percent of nothing sure I would always

47:01

say your team get people in partner

47:03

out with people and really like go

47:05

for it with your team of people

47:07

and that has changed everything for me

47:09

like it was so important me identifying

47:12

what I'm good at what I'm not

47:14

good at what I do have who

47:16

I have around me and their strengths

47:18

and their weaknesses and identifying what I

47:20

don't have and then trying to get

47:23

those people so when I went and

47:25

found my advisors for my my business

47:27

like to a lot of people it's

47:29

like why you need advisors for a

47:32

business. And it was like, you just

47:34

need people that have done this before,

47:36

know how to do it, that can

47:38

help guide you to run a successful

47:40

business. And if that means giving a

47:43

little bit of equity or way to

47:45

do that, I'm gonna do it. And

47:47

I did that and I got the.

47:49

you know the best advisory board that

47:51

I could ask for they literally came

47:54

and transformed my whole business like said

47:56

you need to find this person that

47:58

person you need to do this we

48:00

need to do this and these are

48:02

the margins and these it's how you

48:05

go about it and like it was

48:07

just everything that changed my business for

48:09

me so I would definitely say team,

48:11

like I just feel like I want

48:13

to build the Avengers like when it

48:16

comes to business and any business that

48:18

I do, it's just about who am

48:20

I doing it with, like partnering with

48:22

and who your team is. So I

48:24

know it's very important to you giving

48:27

back and making the music industry more

48:29

accessible for aspiring artists and you know

48:31

you've done the rap game which I'm

48:33

a huge fan of. Me and Pete

48:35

watched that in bed. Yeah so talk

48:38

me through. Talk with this. Come away,

48:40

we're coming from like, you don't really

48:42

have a lot of opportunities. And I

48:44

always just think about my younger me

48:47

and like what I would have been

48:49

able to do or avoid if I

48:51

had people that offered opportunities for me.

48:53

Yeah. You know, it was given back

48:55

in some way. So I truly value

48:58

given back and you know, if you're

49:00

able to change even one person's life

49:02

with... given something back like why would

49:04

you not kind of thing and you

49:06

know we we set up positive direction

49:09

foundation where we went back to the

49:11

schools where we grew up in and

49:13

we started giving out like mentorship so

49:15

we were teaching them how to you

49:17

know record music song right well make

49:20

album covers artwork and whatever creative space

49:22

that you know we had access to

49:24

and we would get people from our

49:26

industry so songwriters that we knew like

49:28

graphic designers that have done big album

49:31

covers and you know engineers producers that

49:33

have made massive hit records to come

49:35

down and all kind of give back

49:37

to that is amazing and I wanted

49:39

to do it after school hours as

49:42

well because you know after school this

49:44

is where you can get into trouble

49:46

get up to no good so before

49:48

after school hours would be perfect time

49:51

to do this to give them something

49:53

to do and actually teach them stuff

49:55

so being able to do that and

49:57

utilize my network to do that it's

49:59

like if I can why wouldn't I

50:02

do that? I don't know you get

50:04

the time to do all these things?

50:06

You find a team. Team. Team. Right

50:08

team and right people that can help

50:10

manage all of this stuff is what

50:13

I would say. And even when we

50:15

did the restaurant, like I don't believe

50:17

in throwing the food away that, you

50:19

know, at the end of the day,

50:21

we'll go and bag it all up

50:24

and go and give it out to

50:26

all the homeless people in the local

50:28

area. Do you know what I mean?

50:30

Like why would you throw away all

50:32

of this food? That's kind of stuff

50:35

to stop. I hate waste. Doesn't it

50:37

with me? Yeah, do you know what

50:39

I mean? And like even now we've

50:41

known his baby like we give to

50:43

so many baby banks and you know

50:46

parents that might not be able to

50:48

afford toiletries. So we would just go

50:50

and just give it to them. My

50:52

husband went to this homeless charity thing

50:54

the other day and they said like

50:57

there's a huge like that the main

50:59

cause of people going to A&E now

51:01

is the tooth decay. because people are

51:03

struggling so much with poverty that they're

51:06

not even buying toothpaste. Isn't that? That's

51:08

crazy. To even give me goosebumps saying,

51:10

it's like, how horrific is that? That's

51:12

crazy. So if you're in a position

51:14

to help people, to do things, simple

51:17

things like that, why wouldn't you? I

51:19

know. I just, I could never, I

51:21

could never be running a multi-million pound

51:23

business doing toiletries and not give back

51:25

to parents. I just couldn't do it.

51:28

No, I couldn't. It just doesn't, it

51:30

just doesn't sit right with me. You

51:32

know, I mean, like, and I've always

51:34

been that, no matter what it is

51:36

that I do, whether it's music, giving

51:39

back to kids that want to get

51:41

into this, whether it's, you know, toilet

51:43

trees and I'm giving back to parents,

51:45

whether it's, That's so lovely. So Young

51:47

Kings 2 and Young Kings, which is

51:50

your first album, you've come full circle

51:52

and because you went from an independent

51:54

artist and you're now an independent artist

51:56

again. Yeah, full circle. Yeah, it's crazy.

51:58

You know, Young King's changed our life,

52:01

you know what I mean? And we

52:03

were independent. And since then, that was

52:05

2013, so, you know, 12 years ago,

52:07

like we're talking about. That's a long

52:09

career. Yeah, it's a long time, yeah,

52:12

a long career, a lot of people,

52:14

you know, don't get to do this

52:16

stuff. So for us being independent again,

52:18

you know, after being in our label

52:21

deal for, you know, eight, nine years,

52:23

you know, to come out of our

52:25

deal and still be where we are

52:27

and then be able to do young

52:29

kings too. And it just feels like

52:32

a whole full circle moment, you know

52:34

what I mean? So much has happened

52:36

since then, so much growths happen. Yeah.

52:38

Since when we did that, you know

52:40

what I mean? To now, like, had

52:43

kids, like, had kids, like, now it's

52:45

like it's a representation of where we're

52:47

at now so like you know we

52:49

have records where we're having fun and

52:51

you know that represents the fun side

52:54

we've also got records that are a

52:56

lot more serious a lot more deeper

52:58

like I've written a letter to my

53:00

daughter I love that which is crazy

53:02

because I it was so funny because

53:05

when Alice because I got a little

53:07

sneak peek at that before the album

53:09

was out and I felt like that

53:11

was that's what I say to my

53:13

Sophia like It's so important to find

53:16

here people, people who like big you

53:18

up and are like, oh you're greater

53:20

tennis, that's amazing, I want to come

53:22

and watch you, not like, why are

53:24

you playing tennis? You're such a geek,

53:27

it's like find your people and don't

53:29

let their bitterness cause any resentment in

53:31

you, so therefore you act the same

53:33

way to other people, be kind. I

53:36

was like, this is what I say

53:38

to everything in this song, is what

53:40

I say to my daughter, I absolutely

53:42

loved. Love that one. Thank you. Yeah,

53:44

it was so important to me man.

53:47

You know, because you never know anything

53:49

can happen and God forbid something happens

53:51

to me. I just want something near

53:53

that. she can just listen to some

53:55

words of wisdom from her dad that

53:58

she can always just resonate with you

54:00

know what I mean so and these

54:02

are things that I think are really

54:04

important that I just don't feel emotional

54:06

she might not think about it now

54:09

or you know during her young years

54:11

but you need to think about this

54:13

you know I mean and yeah recognize

54:15

the people that are not going to

54:17

be there for you like imagine someone

54:20

told us that we would have avoided

54:22

so much do you know what I

54:24

mean but I want to be able

54:26

to tell her that and you know

54:28

I want to be that dad to

54:31

him and that you know that is

54:33

just everything this is my dad. As

54:35

being a dad changed who you are

54:37

and you change your perspective? Yeah, it

54:40

has 100% like it felt like it

54:42

gave me a purpose. Because you're always

54:44

chasing success you're chasing the next thing

54:46

and then it's like what's it for?

54:48

And then when I had my daughter

54:51

it was like oh this is what

54:53

I'm doing this for like... and you

54:55

know I'd give everything to my daughter

54:57

you know of course so everything I'm

54:59

doing now and why I'm so hungry

55:02

and why I'm doing all of these

55:04

these things it is because of my

55:06

daughter you know I mean and she

55:08

gives me that kind of driving force

55:10

to do all of these things because

55:13

people always think like gone from this

55:15

you're doing this you're doing this how

55:17

you do and I just what keeps

55:19

you going and I'm just like I

55:21

literally just vision my daughter and I

55:24

wake up and I just get to

55:26

it like literally so Yeah, back to

55:28

like your youth and you come in

55:30

this full circle. Was it a hard

55:32

album to write? Was it an emotional

55:35

journey? It was hard because like look

55:37

where we've come, you know? Yeah, like

55:39

because we've been writing this album and

55:41

so much has happened. So we have

55:43

to, we changed the album at three,

55:46

four times because things just kept happening.

55:48

And it's just like, we need to

55:50

talk about this. Do you know what

55:52

I mean? Like how can I have

55:55

an album and not? be talking about

55:57

how I'm feeling about my daughter and

55:59

writing a song to my daughter or

56:01

you know how Conan's feeling many... you

56:03

know, his dad not being here. Do

56:06

you know what I mean? Like this,

56:08

and we go through these different emotions,

56:10

so we always kind of need to

56:12

document it and we're reaching different milestones

56:14

and it's like, we need to talk

56:17

about that. And, you know, so it's

56:19

difficult in a way because you're trying

56:21

to put everything that's happening into it,

56:23

but then so much just keeps happening.

56:25

So it's like you're constantly chasing, you

56:28

tell, but yeah, the process of writing

56:30

it's. It's fun, like I enjoy writing

56:32

music, I'm always writing, like in my

56:34

spare time if I'm on a flight

56:36

somewhere, I'm in my car by myself,

56:39

I'll just keep my range. Are you

56:41

a pen and paper or you write

56:43

it in your phone? Oh God, I

56:45

used to write pen and paper back

56:47

in the day, but you know, technology's

56:50

got hold of me I guess. It's

56:52

easier to store as well. So what

56:54

is next you've got the album out

56:56

you presumably you're gonna be going on

56:58

tall? Yeah, we're gonna come and watch

57:01

you You're gonna come will come definitely

57:03

come to be on the alternate I'd

57:05

love to and so what's next? More

57:07

businesses and you know just more milestones

57:10

and growing my current businesses that I'm

57:12

doing now, you know just getting back

57:14

to enjoying music because you know when

57:16

you're in the label It's like you're

57:18

just thinking about, oh, you need to

57:21

do this, a song like this, and

57:23

you want to... And it's all about

57:25

that, but now it's just about... I

57:27

just want to enjoy doing music. Like,

57:29

no, there's no pressure on it. So

57:32

why did the decision come to leave

57:34

the label? Because you just do not,

57:36

like, firstly, the deal, like, wasn't good.

57:38

We signed a deal in 2013 before

57:40

a stream. It just didn't make sense,

57:43

and... They understood and they kind of,

57:45

you know, let us say, okay, we'll

57:47

let you go, do you know what

57:49

I mean? Like, and... We get it.

57:51

Do you know what I mean? Like

57:54

we've been with them for years, we've

57:56

never complained about our deal, we never

57:58

complained about our situation. Even though our

58:00

deal wasn't great and we made so

58:02

much more come from it and that

58:05

made us so hungry because we were

58:07

in a shit deal. Yeah, we gotta

58:09

do something else. We're gonna go and

58:11

do all this other stuff and we

58:14

put so much focus into our live

58:16

shows, our performances, like flame. making a

58:18

stage fly and do all of this

58:20

stuff to make to add value into

58:22

our live experiences and you know doing

58:25

TV radio and all of this other

58:27

stuff that we've done it's made us

58:29

hungry business and all of this stuff

58:31

if we was maybe in a better

58:33

deal we might not have been as

58:36

hungry as we was to do other

58:38

stuff so at the same time would

58:40

I change that might not because that

58:42

made me who I am today do

58:44

you know I mean yeah and I'm

58:47

someone I'll just never look at anything

58:49

as like Wow, I'm not going to

58:51

sit and dwell on anything. Don't victimize

58:53

yourself? Yeah, I just say this is

58:55

the situation, this has happened, I'm going

58:58

to learn from it, and I'm never

59:00

going to end up in that situation

59:02

again, and I'm going to go and

59:04

continue my life and do great things.

59:06

Because I don't think anything can stop

59:09

me from being great. Me signing a

59:11

bad deal, does that mean I can't

59:13

go and be a sick TV presenter?

59:15

No. You can't go and make a

59:17

sick radio show and make a sick

59:20

radio show, or a sick radio show,

59:22

or a sick radio show, or a

59:24

sick radio show, does, does, does that

59:26

mean, or a sick radio show, does,

59:29

does that mean, does, or a sick

59:31

radio show, or a sick radio show,

59:33

or a sick radio show, does, does

59:35

that mean, does that mean, does, does,

59:37

does, does, does, does, does, does, does,

59:40

does, does, does, or a sick radio

59:42

show, or a sick radio show and

59:44

cry over spilled milk. I'm just going

59:46

to go and get it done. And

59:48

that's always been my mentality with everything.

59:51

I just, if I find myself in

59:53

an unfortunate situation, I just think of

59:55

a solution. I don't want to be

59:57

that person that sits and dwell on

59:59

the negative thing because that happens to

1:00:02

all of us. We're always going to

1:00:04

go through things. Things are always going

1:00:06

to happen. We're always going to face

1:00:08

hurdles. But what makes you different from

1:00:10

other people is how do you get

1:00:13

up? keep it moving and try and

1:00:15

you know move forward with your life

1:00:17

and I'm that person so yeah. Luckily

1:00:19

because a lot aren't. I know but

1:00:21

I would always encourage people to to

1:00:24

you know do the same. That we

1:00:26

all go through things we all make

1:00:28

mistakes. all going through rough patches, all

1:00:30

face hurdles. Like that is normal, do

1:00:32

you know what I mean? Like I

1:00:35

don't want everyone to think that I'm

1:00:37

saying that. I've gone through worse things.

1:00:39

Conan's gone through so much horrible things.

1:00:41

And some people, how did you get

1:00:44

through that? And we just tunnel vision

1:00:46

like, all right, this has happened, we

1:00:48

can't change it. Yeah. Let's keep it

1:00:50

moving. And how can we better our

1:00:52

situation? Better our situation? Maybe. How'd we

1:00:55

do that? How'd you do that? Yeah.

1:00:57

Building a supermarket is like, yeah, that,

1:00:59

that, even, even now, was like, how,

1:01:01

how's this even happened? But at the

1:01:03

same time, for us, it was just

1:01:06

like, again, when it comes to shopping

1:01:08

for, you know, black and Asian ethnic

1:01:10

minorities, a lot of the time we

1:01:12

got a spy. shopping separately. Like some

1:01:14

people want to get your halau meat

1:01:17

from here, you got to go and

1:01:19

get your hair products on this shop,

1:01:21

you want to go and get certain

1:01:23

vegetables and whatever, you got to go

1:01:25

to the market here, you got, and

1:01:28

it was just like, and then they

1:01:30

have a little eye on like a

1:01:32

Tesco's or a saying, because there might

1:01:34

be an eye on that's, and it's

1:01:36

very limited to what you can get.

1:01:39

So who's just like, you know, why

1:01:41

don't we make a modern... supermarket where

1:01:43

we can put all of this stuff

1:01:45

in one place. So people can go

1:01:47

and get their meats that they want

1:01:50

to get. They can go and get

1:01:52

your vegetables, your plantings. You can go

1:01:54

and get the hair products that you

1:01:56

need. You can go, you know what

1:01:59

I'm saying, get the normal stuff that

1:02:01

you need, like in general, you know,

1:02:03

your household goods, you know, bakery, like

1:02:05

everything. Do you know what I mean?

1:02:07

And it was just like, put in

1:02:10

both worlds. Together. Together. you know, making

1:02:12

something that just had a bit more

1:02:14

accessibility for people that have to go

1:02:16

to a lot of different places to

1:02:18

get loads of different specific things. And

1:02:21

we just put it in one place.

1:02:23

So where is the supermarket? Better than

1:02:25

Lane Croydon. Not too far from it.

1:02:27

It takes me about 37 minutes. Oh,

1:02:29

is it? Because I was in Croydon

1:02:32

the other day at the toy shop.

1:02:34

Well, obviously we grew up and we

1:02:36

was always there for our youth and

1:02:38

stuff and our business partner, Kaysaw, he's

1:02:40

from Nashville, all from, all grew up,

1:02:43

same place. And, you know, he's doing

1:02:45

amazing things with smacks. Like, he's got

1:02:47

multiple smacks stores now. They're growing out,

1:02:49

massive rate. you know two people from

1:02:51

the same place partnering together to launch

1:02:54

you know a business is just like

1:02:56

I think a must you know I

1:02:58

mean if there's anybody that you know

1:03:00

that's doing well you're doing well and

1:03:03

you're doing well and you just need

1:03:05

to get together and create something can

1:03:07

we just thought this was the perfect

1:03:09

thing to do you know what I

1:03:11

mean? What's it called the shop? Yeah

1:03:14

so yeah it's called saveways so you

1:03:16

know even doing wholesale there so people

1:03:18

can go and buy stuff in bulk

1:03:20

and It speaks two floors. Oh my

1:03:22

God. Look and back at everything you've

1:03:25

accomplished. What legacy are you? What legacy

1:03:27

do you want to leave? For me,

1:03:29

legacy is just, I want to be

1:03:31

someone that, you know, for future generations

1:03:33

can look at and say like, this

1:03:36

person came from this place and was

1:03:38

able to build this and, you know,

1:03:40

things that long live me, like out

1:03:42

with me, sorry. you know, things that

1:03:44

when Norla's got kids and she can

1:03:47

pick up an on his baby bottle

1:03:49

and you know, it's now this massive

1:03:51

brand and you know, this is leaving

1:03:53

all of this for future generations to

1:03:55

be like, that was my great great-granddad

1:03:58

or whatever it is and, you know,

1:04:00

just leaving something and then also leaving

1:04:02

stuff for other people to inspire to

1:04:04

and give people hope like, coming from

1:04:06

where we're coming from, you know, I

1:04:09

mean, if a kid from South London,

1:04:11

you know, you know, you know, can

1:04:13

do you know, can do this, can

1:04:15

do this, then so can I, you

1:04:18

know. Yeah. And we started with absolutely

1:04:20

nothing. So there was no handouts, you

1:04:22

know, but had no help and we

1:04:24

built what we built. And I just

1:04:26

want people to kind of see that

1:04:29

and just feel like I can do

1:04:31

it too. Yeah. Definitely. I feel very

1:04:33

motivated. Isn't it to you today? I'm

1:04:35

going to go over and be like,

1:04:37

what can I do? Genuinely. You are

1:04:40

incredible. Thank you. And you're definitely going

1:04:42

to leave an incredible legacy because you've

1:04:44

targeted every single sector there is. So

1:04:46

you've got to be fine. But thank

1:04:48

you so much for this chat and

1:04:51

good look at the album and I'll

1:04:53

see you at the gig or in

1:04:55

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