Vegas Circle

From Writing Hits Overseas to Building His Own Label: Arenbe Williams’ Story

• The Vegas Circle

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A lot of artists want longevity, but few want the work that comes with it. We sit down with Arenbe Williams, a singer, songwriter, producer, and independent label founder, to get brutally practical about how you stay relevant for 20-plus years in a music industry that now changes month to month. Arenbe talks about coming from the album era, respecting the single era, and why evolving does not mean chasing every trend. If you care about real artistry, R&B culture, and building a career that lasts, this conversation hits home. 

We dig into the behind-the-scenes side of being independent: creative partnerships that keep you sharp, making music that can travel globally, and what it means to win without needing the usual trophies. Arenbe shares how songwriting for a major artist in Australia led to chart success, plus the mindset shift that “music is its own reward.” Then we go deeper into his Shreveport roots, regional culture, and how influence spreads in unexpected ways. 

The biggest reality check is for artists and entrepreneurs who rely too heavily on the internet. Arenbe explains why algorithm-chasing can leave you with numbers but no motion, and why real-world human connection is still the ultimate growth engine. That same approach powers his Las Vegas story: relationships as currency, moving a room through genuine community, and building Lifestyle Sundays into an all-R&B nostalgia experience people still talk about. We close with his simple rule for branding and business, don’t ever tone it down, plus what’s next for his upcoming album All My Heartbreaks. 

If you enjoy conversations about independent music, artist branding, Las Vegas nightlife, and building community, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Welcome And Meet RB Williams

SPEAKER_02

Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts, Pocky and Chris. We are people who are passionate about business, success, and culture. And this is our platform to showcase the people in our city who are making it happen. And on today's guest, we definitely just got just that. We are welcoming special guests, RB, singer and songwriter, producer, and independent label founder. Let's welcome to the circle, Mr. RB Williams. One of the best names. Welcome, brother. Yes, sir. Thank y'all for having me, man. I appreciate this. Definitely. Yeah, yeah. So it's good to have you in the flesh, man. We got a chance to connect with mutual people, Ronald Johnson. I gotta give him a shout out. That's me, yeah. Ron's been great for us, man. You were at our uh Beyond the Game multiple events and appreciate your support. Honestly. Yes, sir. I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, definitely. Amazing.

SPEAKER_02

But let's jump right in, man. So been in the music game for over 20 years in an era where you know artists come and go quickly. But you've been in the mix and stay relevant, you know, from writing music, from going overseas, uh you got an international um space. But let's let's start there, man. How have you been able to just keep everything together over 20 plus years? Because it's extremely hard in this game.

SPEAKER_00

So I feel like for me, it's been my

Longevity Without Chasing Trends

SPEAKER_00

passion. I think that's probably what it's like for me because a lot of people that I started music with, they've been stopped doing music and started different things like having kids and getting married and like just going to other, you know, like you gotta make a living for yourself, right? But I was one of those people I was just so obsessed and determined with like this is the only life I want. There was nothing else that I was like, well, maybe I could fall back on this, or maybe I can do it. You know, I was like, no, this is what it is, so this is what I'm gonna, you know, stick to. And when you got that type of mentality, you have no choice but to at some point, you know, something things are gonna happen, right? You're consistent. Things are gonna happen. Eventually, you're gonna get something that's gonna lead to this, or lead to that, lead to that. And so I'm just a person that's just been determined and focused the whole time. Just like, okay, let me just keep, you know, keep at it, keep at it, keep at it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And music is kind of a tough one though, because obviously most things stay consistent for a long period of time. Music changes very drastically year to year of what it seems like now, month to month. Yeah, month to month.

SPEAKER_02

Almost day to date. TikTok and the whole nine.

SPEAKER_00

Right, right, exactly. With streaming and stuff, it's yeah, like, you know, you got everybody putting something out, and like we live, we live, like you said, with TikTok, we live in like the single era. So, and I'm I come from the album era. Like, you know, the single is just like the appetizer, but we want the untray.

SPEAKER_01

We don't just party amusing.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I don't want to. Right, right. So I come from that era, and when you start that way, it's like no matter what everybody else is doing, I'm doing me. Like catering to those who still appreciate going vinyl shopping or having some type of uh you know, substantial like product, I should say, you know, CDs and something. Something you can still have.

SPEAKER_02

You know what's ill that you say that, so you know my father had just passed, right? So we were just celebrating his his service this past weekend.

SPEAKER_03

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02

But I found and I got them all in my house now in my garage. I got all of his record collection, man. Like just music. My dad was a music head, man. Okay. You're 100% right, man, from old Barry. That gives you something nostalgia. Literally, I'm looking at his collection. So I had messed up his record player, but I had to order another one through Amazon. So I'm getting that by Friday. Okay. Just because I want to be able to listen to it, man. Because he got so much history in that.

SPEAKER_01

So how do you not get stuck in that history, right? Because a lot of times when you start 20 years, you know, I always feel like people are, I'm still listening to the same stuff I listened to when I was 13. So I'm pretty consistent. So, and as you kind of see stuff changing, how do you adapt to that environment? I think you're progressing. Because you know, like yourself, I'm true to my what I like. I like the old school feel.

SPEAKER_00

Definitely. I think for me personally, I'm always around music. Like, always. Like, I sing more than I talk. Like, I've been that way since a kid. So, like, and and here's the thing with me, right? I'm a snob when it comes to music. I'm gonna be honest with y'all. I'm a snob. Now, that doesn't mean that I criticize people if they make music that I don't personally like. Because I think, you know, you're talented if you know you're able to get out here and do it and things like that. So, I mean, you know, being talented and taking that risk, a lot of people won't even do that part, right? So I'm not a critic. I don't I don't go and criticize people, but I'm always around music. So I hear everything. I hear all types of styles, like you said, with the international space. I hear all these different types, and I listen to all music. Like I listen to pop stuff, I listen to RB stuff, hip-hop stuff, country stuff. I grew up on blues stuff. My grandma listened to a lot of blues music. Because you're originally from the South, right? Yeah, originally from Louisiana, Streetport. City Car Street Pour, yeah, yeah. So like being around music all the time, you know how to like embrace certain parts of it, but still keeping your boundaries of like, that's dope, but that's not for me.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, like your foundation is a pentagon.

SPEAKER_00

Because I've watched like a lot of some artists that I respect and I like. I watch them go from doing what they do and what we love them for, and then trying to jump on this new wave, like, oh, everybody's using auto tunes, but let me go try that.

SPEAKER_01

And it's like, but we don't like the big thing now is everybody jump into country music. And I'm like, I don't know, I like the better, maybe a little bit before it.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly, right? And I'm not saying stay in one space and don't grow or don't evolve as an artist, right? Because we're gonna welcome evolution, but at the same time, still stick to your core, like be true to what you bring. Yeah, true to what you do.

SPEAKER_02

Perfect example is like Nas. Okay. He ain't changed. Exactly. And his music is still fire. Yeah, exactly. And he is not changed. The last four or five hours he done put out has been straight, and he's not trying to sound like the young cat. Exactly. Clips, bringing new albums that just came out. Exactly, exactly. New sound will for real, but it was fire.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, because it's like when you when you rap and you that's what you do, that's what you love, you're a lyric guy, and you concepts, there's always things to discuss and talk about. The world changes all the time, right? So you got new things to talk about, just do it in your own way, right?

SPEAKER_01

And pick up on the little nuances that you're learning for other people doing. So maybe I do like the way all of a sudden you're, you know, putting a little, even if it's just auto tuned. Like maybe I like auto-tune now. So I'm gonna try to try it out a little bit.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, exactly. I mean, I think so I'm

Creative Balance With A Production Partner

SPEAKER_00

uh I'll give you, I'll give you an example, right? So I'm part of a production duo, right? It's me and one other guy, right? Okay. So kind of put you in the mind frame of like the Neptunes or like how I was Chatting Pharrell, or like uh Missy and Timlin, how he worked. So me and this gentleman, we've been working together since 2005, right? He's a little younger than you. Yeah, he's a little younger than me, right? So we we have our what I do best, what he does best, but we know how to compromise when it's like, okay, you're younger than me, your ears is gonna hear stuff. My ears probably gonna be like, eh, I don't try to do that.

SPEAKER_02

But there's a respect there, though.

SPEAKER_00

There's a respect there. We're gonna argue though. We argue like randomly in the middle of the day, you don't care what day of the week, we'll just send each other a text, like just on some like which album was better. And it may be an album that came out in '93, but we'll sit there and argue about that album to the point to where we have to FaceTime. Like, but what it does when we making music, it helps because I see things from the classic era, right? I see it like I'm a 90s guy when it comes to like RB music, right? I like 90s stuff, I like mid-80s stuff, and then as well as we both appreciate like the older stuff, right? The legends, right?

SPEAKER_03

Of course, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

But when I'm making music, I necessarily don't want to go for like a lot of the newer sounding things, right? I like a little more classic sound, and then that's where he comes in with like, but yo, if you we we gotta sell records, we gotta right, and this is what's gonna sell. This is what's hot, this is da-da-da-da-da. So that balance, yeah, that balance of having somebody to like, you know, check you on that and and and meet you halfway on, like, well, look, man, I know that's what you into, but this is what I'm into. So it kind of goes both ways. So I'd be like this. I'm gonna give you a little bit of that, and then you let me, you know, do this. And be like, all right, cool. It's a good mix, man. It's a great mix to have a right partner. And 21 years says a lot. Oh, yeah, for real. This is my I I call him my musical soulmate, man. His name is Noise. Okay, yeah, yeah. So, and he's done like, because like I said, we're a duo, but we also do our separate things. Got it. Because I'm a writer, you know, I'm a writer, and he just recently started writing. He's more like hands-on with the production and stuff like that. So he got a joint uh with Edison Pack and uh the singer serve from TDE, Poetry and Motion. He produced that record, right? So at the time he was doing that, I'm writing for an artist in Melbourne, Australia. A huge artist over there, right? I'm I'm you know, writing.

SPEAKER_02

What kind of music in Australia?

SPEAKER_00

So he he's I give him like a vibe of like maybe like put you in the mind frame of like a Sam Smith.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. Right, right. Yeah, there you go. You hit it.

SPEAKER_00

You hit it right on the dot. He can sing, he's soulful. He was Australia's the, you know how we have America's got talent? Yeah, got talent. Oh wow. He he was on Australia's got talent, he was the runner up, but he's now he's evolved and like he's a huge star over there. Like he's doing shows at like their symphony hall over there. He's like huge, right? So being able to write for him is experiences that like you know, I I wouldn't get that normally being relatively unknown, meaning like I don't have a number one billboard record, but I got a number two on the Australia choice, the Aria Choice. So their billboard is called Arya. So Aria Choice, right, right. I got a number two on their debut album for him, but uh you know, I had I had a uh you know wrote the single with him.

SPEAKER_01

Um that's a great feeling, I bet. It must be awesome.

SPEAKER_00

Man, it's still kind of surreal too, right? Because like going back to what you said about where I'm from, right? Man, where I'm from, like to be in the position, or I said I should say to do some of the things that I've done, right? Because I look at music like this. Music is its own reward, right? So you can't you can't determine a person's like success by just, oh, he got billboards, or he got Grammys, or he he went on tour Rihanna, or music is its own reward. Like I get more joy out of, and I'm sure a lot of musicians may say this, I get more joy out of performing, singing, putting music out, than maybe if I did get an award for something. I mean, obviously we do we definitely want to perform on the highest level, but I'm saying I think there's a misconception of like if you don't have the cover rolling stone, you're not a successful musician. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That's that's it makes sense because like you you you're doing this because you're passionate about it. Like you said, you do no matter what, and I can't stop myself. And so when you do it well and you're progressing at it, you know, we just had Misha Tat on the same thing. When you're doing something you're trying to perform at your highest level, that alone is reward. It doesn't mean it's reward, right?

SPEAKER_00

And like I like I say, I'm from Shreve, Louisiana. Like my city isn't that huge, right? And to be on the Aria charts, top 10, and I've never even been to Australia. But that's not music. The power of it. The power of music, right? I've never even been to Australia, but yeah, I'm I'm I'm certified.

SPEAKER_01

And it's also weird too, because like even the accent is different, right? So even navigating those barriers is very different.

SPEAKER_00

You go, right, right.

SPEAKER_01

Is Shreeport where 50's building?

SPEAKER_02

There you go. Oh. Okay, so that's Shreeport. Okay, so he's rebuilding the whole area there, you know, studio studios and things like that. Yeah, exactly. Like what Tyler Perry did in Atlanta. There you go.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, right. So Shreeport is north, right, of Louisiana. New Orleans is south. So New Orleans is all the way at the bottom, and then I will say Bad Ridge is in the middle, and then at the very, very top is uh Shreeport, where I'm a small, small area, like you were telling me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, right. Very I mean, to us, it was huge. To us, it was New York and LA to us growing up there. But yeah, it is not the biggest of cities, right? But we have had people come from our city. Johnny Cochrane is from our city. Yeah, the comedian Paul Mooney. Paul Mooney, a legend, yeah. There you go, right? I did not know that. From from Shreveport.

SPEAKER_01

Have you only heard Shreetport over the years? There's a lot of talented people come out of the owner, too.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Right. So he yeah, like so what he's doing, like with the uh opening up his own movie studio, renovating a lot of the downtown areas because my city went through like a I guess, I guess you could say a transition from like our my kind of generation when we all graduated and left, it kind of went yeah, it kind of slowed down for a minute.

SPEAKER_02

Yep. And kind of hurt the economy a little bit. There you go. I get it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, hurt the economy a lot. I get it. A lot.

Shreveport Roots And Ratchet Origins

SPEAKER_00

And then so it started coming back in the 2000s, right? But I'm gonna give a fun fact real quick while we're on the topic. Yep. I'm gonna give a fun fact on this on this podcast so everybody can know and understand this. So are y'all familiar with the slang term ratchet? Yes. When somebody be like, oh, that's ratchet, oh, it's so ratchet in there. My hometown, Shreveport, is the origin of the word ratchet. Oh, I did not know that. That's the origin of the word ratchet.

SPEAKER_02

So everybody that thinks that's the household name came from your listen. Well, I did not know that. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

No, like a lot of people don't. A lot of people don't know that. But yeah, so we used to call our city Ratchet City. That's the word that we used to call our city Ratchet City. I mean, they still do, but but yeah, back in the 90s, a rapper, a local rapper by the name of Mandigo, he made it popular as far as like he was regional, but he made it popular outside of our city because he had a song and it spread to Georgia and all the Texas and you know, other places around our surrounding area, and it just spread, right? So I left my city in about 98, 97, 98.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

And I moved to Dallas first, then went to Virginia, and then moved to LA. And I'm in LA, right? Because I didn't know this word had spread. So I'm in LA, and yeah, I'm in LA and I'm out somewhere, and I'm around these girls. And one of these girls, she was, you know, somebody looked like they never even heard of myself. You know what I mean? Not to discriminate, but it's like she would never even think of that. And she said, Oh my god, that girl's shoes is so ratchet. And I look like, what did you just say? Because she wasn't even using it right. Like, yeah, and I was like, wait, and I had to tell her, and she thought I was lying. I had to pull it up on my phone and Google it. You Google what's the origin of the word ratchet.

SPEAKER_02

Y'all use my word, basically. Yeah, y'all use my word. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It'll pop up, right, right. Exactly. It'll pop up, right? So coming from like a city that's like relatively not somewhere, like I say, 50 is making it very popular now. But like I say, I'm from there, born and raised, so I know how hard it was to even, you know, get any type of recognition out of there to hear people talk about it and see him posting about it. And you know, release the street port. I love it. I mean, I love it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it's like it's like it's like it's funny that you see, and it just shows you the power that music has, right? Because I think our most slang terms, I I would guess, come probably from rap music in these regional environments, that kind of spread.

SPEAKER_00

And then now you hear Jay-Z or somebody say it, you're like, What? Yeah, we were saying that when we were kids, like what the fuck is that?

SPEAKER_01

It's so funny when you see that. Because I feel like a lot of those, because obviously when you're in these big metro markets, or even big cities, and some of them that have a lot of rap culture, they do it spreads there, that hits nationwide very quickly, too, which is funny. Right, right. So I'm originally from the East Coast.

SPEAKER_02

It goes quick, man.

SPEAKER_00

Right, right, right, exactly.

Why Internet Fame Fails Offline

SPEAKER_02

You know, speaking on the independent side, right? So what's one mistake you see independent artists making right now that maybe you can help them with?

SPEAKER_00

Today, I I feel like, like you say about the internet, right? I think they depend on it too much, right? So my first demo Interesting. Did you say that? My first demo was on a cassette tape. Like we you you know what I mean? You talking to somebody who put in, you know, they say you put your 10,000 hours in, I put in a hundred thousand hours. Like we doing talent shows, and I've been a street performer singing on the streets and uh the underground mall in Atlanta. I've done all the everything that all the steps of like you should you should do this or you should do that when people try to give you advice when you're coming up in this, and it's one of those things where it's just like now that we have the internet and you have like you can blow up over you know overnight with TikTok and stuff like that with one record or one little smaller. They're trying to figure the algorithm out. Chasing going viral, and those of those things. I think they rely too much on that because here's the thing like I tell people all the time, like, you can be hot on the internet, but in real life, you know what I mean? We don't, yeah, you can't do anything, you can't fill this room up right now. You can't do anything, but on the internet, you got plenty of mentions and follows and all these things, right? And it could be easily manipulated as well, right? People can pay for those things or you know, whatever, right? Which I don't knock none of this. I'm just giving you my opinion on it. I'm just saying, like, when you rely solely on that, you get a rude awakening. You get a rude awakening because you think you're this, you feel in yourself, and then you go out and you perform somewhere, or you put a product out, and you like, why nobody? What there's no motion, there's no traction, there's no nothing.

SPEAKER_01

Because if they're doing it backwards, like they're coming, like they're trying to appeal to the masses first, and then trying to say, because then I don't want to put in the time for four people when I can get 10,000 online.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly, right? But I feel like you're missing the human experience, you're missing that that human connection. Like, I remember like we used to outside of like doing the the talent shows and stuff like that, because I used to be in a group, right? Which I'm gonna give you some give you a a tidbit about that. That's kind of kind of cool too. Okay. But we used to go and like, because remember, we couldn't just click Google and find out who does what, what's what, right? So we we would be like, How do you get your record played on a radio station? Right? So we would chase a DJ, and the DJ would be like, Man, you gotta talk to a program director. What's a program director? Right? Oh, the program director is the person who says what's played on their station at that particular location, right? So we would literally sit in the lobby of radio stations all day long. We don't know nobody. Yeah, we don't know nobody with the reception telling us, I don't, baby, I don't know why y'all sitting up in here. Right, ain't nobody. Yeah, ain't nobody, but we like, we we can sing, we got, y'all gotta listen to our tape. Like, I don't, she's like, I don't care. Like, the program director, he's not gonna hear y'all, he's not gonna, but we did it so much to the point where the dude was just like, hey man, all right, come, what y'all, what y'all want? What do you want? And then he was able to be like, okay, look, this is what we're gonna do. And we'll give y'all the, you know, how they do the play it or throw, you know, throwing those things right there. Yeah, yeah. You know, when that was brilliant. How to nod or whatever. Yeah, how to not, yeah, all those type of things. And we were able to do that from that. We was uh we won it like a couple weeks in a row. They brought us into the station. We had to, we had to sing a cappella on the radio station. People were calling in.

SPEAKER_02

See, that's real what you just talking about.

SPEAKER_00

This is real music, real human connection.

SPEAKER_02

And you're excited.

SPEAKER_00

Like, we made it. We made it. Like, mama quit the job. Like we saw, yeah, we saw it live on the radio, right? But from that, the the guy was like, you know what, I'm gonna do for y'all? I'm gonna let y'all open up our summer jam.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00

Just from that, just us of it.

SPEAKER_01

Be persistent.

SPEAKER_00

Persistent and being determined, and like, I'm not gonna just sit at home and post on Instagram and post on Facebook. No, we're gonna get in the field and we're gonna go figure out how I can make an opportunity for myself.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's awesome. That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_02

And they don't never done that in a long time.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_02

Everything is microwave analogy. And you just said some stuff people don't really even understand. That's the master P analogy of literally trunk to trunk.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, you missed the human connection. Like I bringing you up today. I was I've been watching the uh J. Cole, he did the uh trunk sale uh YouTube series. Have you watched that? Did y'all see that? I haven't seen it yet. I want to check it out. It was seven episodes. It was like a series. And there's seven episodes. That's on YouTube? Yeah, so you have to check that out. J. Cole's a beast.

SPEAKER_01

One of my favorites for sure.

SPEAKER_00

Even if you're not a J. Cole fan, even if you're not a hip hop fan, like just how he put everything together. Yeah. Because he's basically driving around in his car that he had before he became famous and stuff, right? It's like a Hunter. Yeah, yeah. And he's driving around to all the cities that he used to go to to try to get on in. Right? So he's going to all these cities, yeah, small towns, going to colleges, and he just pulling up, hopping out, signing autographs, selling the city. When you see the way that people are acting, like these fans of his, how they're crying, they're telling them his testimonies and all of this stuff. He was like, what he's saying, why he did it, or whatever, he was saying, like, he feels like this might be his last album. He like, I've been preparing for this album for like 10 years to put this album out. He'd been working on it for 10 years.

SPEAKER_02

His album's great.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, he was like, everything I was putting out before that was just stuff to kind of, you know, feed the market. But he was like, this might be my last album.

SPEAKER_01

Sure, hope not.

SPEAKER_00

And he was like, I'm a homebody. He was like, you know, I'm just a dad. And he said, I wanted to get out and touch the people and get this experience of what it feels like to be an artist and see it in real time.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, that's pretty great.

SPEAKER_00

Like the album is out. You're playing the album, you're telling me what you think about it, you know, versus being just this clothes off artist in your mansion, come out for the Grammys, come out for this event, this pop up, or this huge tour in the stadium, but never have that human connection.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that's true. That human connection. Everything because to me, music is medicine. Like that just gets me through absolutely everything. You know what I mean? Just the energy in the morning, whatever you're going, is is it's medicine. J. Code to understand that at such a young age, man, is powerful. Kids need to listen up to that, man. I didn't know that that's what it fully was. I just saw the clips of it. I didn't know what it was all about. So I'm definitely gonna watch that. I probably watch that tonight, to be honest.

SPEAKER_00

I ain't even watching, I got emotional watching it. Like some of the episodes is gonna get to you. Like you're gonna see some stuff that's like, wow.

SPEAKER_02

Especially you with music, I'm sure it resonates a little different. Yeah, because I'm looking at it. And he's got a concert coming up too. So you probably promote that. Yeah, yeah, right, right. The tour, right?

SPEAKER_00

And I'm looking at it, and I'm looking at it as if like the power of music, like you got people telling him, Oh, we drove four hours, we drove eight hours, or we just like man, the power of music is so crazy.

SPEAKER_02

It is, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It's so crazy. And people think like, because this is the thing too that I hate. I'm gonna say this to you with your question. But I was gonna say, like, what I don't like about this era right now is people be afraid to show love for an artist or support an artist because oh, I don't, I'm not a groupie. Like, what are you talking about?

SPEAKER_02

Like, Yada said that.

SPEAKER_00

I I hate that's one of my pet peeves, man. I hate that.

SPEAKER_02

Do you know Yada? Do you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yada said that. He said it to me, he was like, people are mean-grilling me thinking that I want to fight and it may offend. He's like, man, just say what up, man. Like, you don't have to do all this. Like, just say what up, man. I'm not trying to fight you.

SPEAKER_00

Like, yeah, like, because it's like this groupie is now all of a sudden it's huge, like bad thing.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we can't be a fan like somebody. And promote them. Like, man, this is my I really like this new music, and everybody's like, oh, like you really like Drake's good album? They also talk about it.

SPEAKER_02

I understand that. I mean, that's like when we we started our podcast, is literally just giving people a platform to be able to talk about because they're the movers and shakers, literally off the strip. You know what I mean? Of course, if you were on the strip, but people are off the strip. But you can't get caught, they're human. Yeah, just give them the respect and the energy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Tupac once said a quote, he was like, I hate when I go out to places like a nightclub or somewhere, and people like treat me like I'm somebody, because then you end up treating me like I'm nobody because you're like, oh, I ain't gonna even he he think he all that. And he like, I'm just here.

SPEAKER_01

Haven't done nothing.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, like I want to meet you, I want to talk to you. But it's like in your mind, you will convince yourself like But it's how you approach somebody. I'm not gonna go over there, I don't want to be a groupie. Now you're treating them like he's nobody when in reality he wants you to just say what up and come talking. So I hate it.

SPEAKER_02

But I also think you know what I think it is though, all jokes aside, it's how you approach the person. Coming with the right energy of the person, right? Because they're gonna feel that and they they see it because you know they can see it a mile away if how you act and I think it's how you bring that energy to them on how they're gonna react a lot of times.

SPEAKER_00

Definitely, definitely. Music is definitely uh medicine, it's definitely a medicine.

SPEAKER_02

Yep.

SPEAKER_00

Like you said, because people have stories. They tell you, like, oh, I was feeling suicidal, and then your story this made me feel like I can make it through it. I can get through it, or I was going through this, and this song made me. So all of those things are like those things that like I think a lot of musicians, like, we crave that, like to hear people something that came up in my mind that I was going through, got 20,000 people singing along to it. That's is insane, right? But you did change music.

SPEAKER_01

Maybe it changes the people's perspective, like when they meet you in first person. Like, as an example, say I I cried to your music, and all of a sudden I'm meeting you, and I'm feeling a little like sad and insecure, so now I'm a little odd about it because like, man, your music made me cry, so now I'm sitting here. Exactly. I feel a little insecure about how I reacted to it.

SPEAKER_00

And then on the and then, too, on the other side of that is how like a song can mean two different things to you.

SPEAKER_01

I'm up here dancing to it and he's crying, vice versa.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly. But you're getting something completely different out of this record than what I intended, and then you hearing something different. You get what I'm saying? There's no, I think it's it can be. It's a different language, it'd be multiple different.

SPEAKER_01

Because they always say what my wife said, What's your hype music? And it's like the saddest song. This is my hype music. Because I, for some reason, that gets me going. Like, I don't know what it is.

SPEAKER_02

It was what's the guy's name? Teddy Swim. Teddy Swim. Teddy Swim's my hype music. I love Teddy Swim. And I'll be liking black coffee. That's all you know. I love black muscles. It gets me in the mood.

SPEAKER_00

Remember in the last dance with Jordan, and they were like, Man, this guy's this killer on the court, and he's back there. He's all he listened to is a needle bakery.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you know what's funny? We have Matt Maxon on that was one of the producers of Last Dance during the pandemic, one of our favorite interviews. They said on the side note, which we probably should say, but they had Jordan loaded all the all that. Oh, yeah, just to get him to keep going. Yeah. But shout out to Matt Maxon. What? So I want to ask you two questions. Okay. I can't let you pass by going past the group. What group were you playing with? Oh, right.

SPEAKER_00

So going back to my city street boy, okay. So, I mean, there's been more than two, but I'm gonna give you two musicians that were able to break national. One was the rapper Hurricane Chris with the record A Babe. Yeah, yeah. Right, so right, right. So Bebe, it's a we have a DJ that was famous in our city or whatever. He was huge, super popular. He used to throw these pool parties every summer that we would all go through. He was super popular. Now he's a big radio DJ in Dallas, in Dallas, Texas, or whatever. So uh that's kind of like a little bit about that record. Sure. But aside from him was a group by the name of Profile. Do you do y'all remember Profile?

SPEAKER_02

I forgot I know who that is, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

They had the song You're Nothing But a Liar, a Cheater, Deceiver.

SPEAKER_02

Remember that record? And this boy can sing right now.

SPEAKER_00

You said he seems brother talked. Right, right. So I was in a group with one of the members from that group, and you know, they formed their own, like, you know, because you know groups, yeah. Yeah, especially when you get a group. Ego. Yeah, we probably I was probably in three, four, five different groups. But yeah, so they end up forming a group because two of them was in another group. One of my members got into their group, they all formed profile, they end up getting a record deal with Motel and stuff like that. So they made it big out of my city. So that's one of those fun, you know, funny. Yeah, that's pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_01

Was it super connected like growing up? Everybody's kind of in the same mix at that time.

SPEAKER_00

Like you guys all It was very competitive. Yeah. I would say that. It was very competitive. Uh like you know how like we watch those movies like the Five Heartbeats and the Temptations movies, and they have the talent show. Oh, yeah, and you can see all the groups. So, like, yeah, so it was with like all eye high schools, like, oh, it's a group over here that sings, a group over there that's very competitive.

SPEAKER_01

Everybody knew about each other, like from different schools.

What A Real Tastemaker Does

SPEAKER_00

But those is the best times. That sounds awesome. Those are the best times.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. When you need to eat. I want you to describe a little bit about being a tastemaker. What does that mean to you?

SPEAKER_00

So, all right. So I feel like this, right? For me, we'll go back a little bit, right? So for me, I grew up the only child, but my mom, uh I have one one uh younger sibling now, but he we're 12 years apart, like 12 years old.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, big difference. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Right, right, huge difference, right? So by the time he was born, my childhood was kind of coming to an end. I'm going into my teenage years, and then I'm out the house. You get him, you get what I'm saying? So when you're like, when you grow up the only child, you kind of become like the leader of your friend groups whenever you hang out. Because it's like everybody can spend the night at your house. Because it's just you. So all your friends can come spend the night at your house, or you usually have more toys than everybody else, because they got to be around. Excuse me. Yeah, you could kind of, you know, you could kind of uh kind of lead the pack of whatever, right? So now it becomes like you start becoming the person that everybody kind of looks to, like, what we doing this weekend, where are we going? What you know, that type of thing. And I think for me it started then. It started of me being like the leader in those situations. And now, not a leader as in like I'm surrounding myself with a bunch of followers, yeah, but I I just it's it comes natural for me, I should say, having the best ideas and having these things or being able to signify what's cool, what's not, and what makes it.

SPEAKER_02

You're having the right ear, man. You having the right ear, yeah. There you go.

SPEAKER_00

Being a visionary, what people should pay attention to, right? That type of thing. Going back to I was telling you about me and my producer partner, Noise, right? So I I remember Rick Ross. He didn't even have his song out, the song, I'm his first record, Everyday I'm hustling. It was just like just barely sprinkled. It wasn't even nationally big yet, right? And I told Noise, I said, hey, this dude right here, I was like, he got that thing. Like, I was like, he's gonna be huge. He was thought I was crazy. There's no way he'll be out of here in a year. I was like, I'm telling you, watch, right? Here we are. No, it's funny. He still to this day always tells me, like, bro, you when you told me about Rick Wall, I don't know, right? And I have those type of stories with so many people, right? So fast forward to my adult life, right? I start just now I I've always been, you know, I always joke and say, I've always been the leader of the cool kids club, right? So, you know, fashion heavy, and you know, my my hashtags on Instagram, talk fly to me, don't never tone it down. This lifestyle ain't cheap. These are my things, but I live these things. These aren't just, you know, quotes, these are things that I live, right?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So I notice how my my power in that, right? Because you know how they say you can have value and not know your value, right? People always be like, so what do you do for a living? What's your job? I am my job, me. Like, I'm the walking, you know, W-2. Like, I it's me. Like, I'm what you're the brand. I'm the brand, right? Before people was using brand all the time, right? So a good example of that is um, and I saw y'all had Jay Sean on here. Oh, yeah, Jay Sean's a fantastic. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, that's one of my brother. One of my brothers, right? I've been knowing Jay Sean probably since I moved out here. Very long time. Yeah. And, you know, they had Moss before. Yeah, Moss Before, right? So I remember one night.

SPEAKER_02

Which is a hilarious spot with the cocaine going through and the whole dive is hilarious. Yeah, right, right. I love it.

SPEAKER_00

And it was, but it was one of like the first like speak easy. Yeah. Really quick, quick. Yeah, that we was we all was like, okay, now this is cool, right? We can vibe with this, right? And I remember one night, this was like early when they like the first year that they were open. And I remember one night, we were already out somewhere else, me and uh my team, my people, and we we was like, oh, let's go by there, because we knew it was open, people was hungry, and we can get a couple drinks, right? So we get there, and it's like a random night. Like it's a random night, right? It wasn't no weekend or nothing special. So we get there and it's empty. Like empty. It's probably like one table of people over there. No exaggeration, right? And so we up in there hanging out, and we loving our vibe. Like the DJ playing good music, and you know, one of the waitresses was talking to us, and she was like, Oh my god, it's been like this all night, it's been super, super slow. Like, I wish some people would hurry up and come up over here. I was like, you know what? All right, let me. Yeah, I was like, I was like, okay, I got you. Hold on. Got on my phone, right? True story. I was like, yo, I'm at Mos Pauvre. The vibe is dope up in here. If you're outside right now, pull up. Text a couple people, yo, hate everybody, tell them pull up to Moss Pauvoir. Literally, less than half hour, it was popping.

SPEAKER_03

Nah, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_00

Like tables everywhere, people spending money, tip, like it was great. Like it was it was a movie in there, like in 30 minutes, right? Now, now I'm I'm I'm you know, I'm humble when I need to be humble, but I also recognize, like I say, my value. And I was sitting there and I was looking around the room and I was like, wow. I just did this for my iPhone. Like, literally just got this place like packed like this, and a light bulb went off. I was like, you know what? I'm finna get some money off of this. Like, I can I can translate this into a business. You know, I was like, this can like because it's like That's what they want.

SPEAKER_01

They want to get people in the room.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_02

And you know, one of my things that I hate RB Sundays, I already know where you were going to be. I'm saying I know exactly where you were going. Here's the thing.

SPEAKER_00

One thing I hate, like, I've been in Vegas for a while, so I'm extremely popular. How long have you been here now? 17 years now. Okay, I'll be 19 coming up.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

The summer of uh 2007 is when I came. Cinco de Maya weekend. Uh-huh. I'll never forget that. Okay. You came 07?

unknown

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, I came I came 07. So what we 18 is? No, 19. It'd be 19 in uh in May for me.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, yeah. Because I came. Yeah. Yeah, whatever weekend that was, Cingo de Maya weekend. Yeah, 07, that's when I came, right? Okay. Okay. So it's it's it's been a minute. Okay. So I'm extremely popular. I am, I'm very well known, right? And not like popular because of, you know, oh, I'm this whatever, but just because I've been here so long. You start building relationships. Yeah, I do a lot, and I'm outside. Like I'm out I'm outside. So, and I've been outside since 07. I get the most consistency award out here, right? Yeah, the most consistent award, right? But so, like, you know, I I've built so many relationships and dealt with so many people over the years, right? So I know just about everybody. And I may not know them on a personal basis, but I know them by face, right? And I'm one of those people where I'm very personable, right? I'm cool with not only the waitresses in the club, the DJ, the VIP host, the club owner, but I'm also cool with the guy in the bathroom that sells us the gum and the cologne. I talk to him about his family, how your family doing, how your kids do. I know these guys by first name basis. Because Vegas is built on relationships.

SPEAKER_01

That's very true.

SPEAKER_00

Right? You know, my younger brother, he always says, like, those relationships, that's that's stronger than money. That's the currency. Yeah, that's stronger than money, right? And like knowing that helps you navigate through any situation.

SPEAKER_02

Like you mentioned Jay Sean. Jay Sean, one of the best, best everyone. I think the best network I ever see.

SPEAKER_00

The best, best ever, and I've been privileged enough to watch his journey from like before he was in that position that he's in now when he because he put in his work. He didn't just land in Vegas and become like, oh, the wind's VIP's, you know, uh host, right? He actually put in the work. I remember when he was just, you know, doing the hosting on the the lower tier of selling tables. He probably gonna kill me for this. But he was working at what was it, the go room over at the Aria upstairs, like back then when he was working the door there.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, he told us about the story. Remember when he did let the odors in? Oh, yeah. He told us about that on our one of our first podcasts. Oh, did he? Okay, yeah, yeah. He got a lot of the jobs and stuff, being able to test them on stuff, yeah. Yeah, right. Sean real, man. Yeah. Real dude. Real dude.

SPEAKER_00

But and you don't get and you don't get those relationships just by like walking up to people, hey, what's your name? Yeah. Hey, what's your name? You don't get those relationships. You still gotta be like a good person, a genuine in your word. You gotta stand on your word. People, they don't, you know what I mean? You gotta stand on your word.

SPEAKER_01

You can't be just BS people. You have to like actually be like personal to your point. You have to be intentional and be uh genuine.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly, right? So pandemic hits to seg into what we started doing, uh, pandemic hits, and I'm I'm just antsy. I'm just antsy of like, God, we gotta do something. Yeah, something I gotta do. Because one thing I hate, like what I was about to say about that, about knowing so many people, is like when I go out, whether it's a Monday night or Saturday night, when I go out somewhere, I'm gonna probably shake 70 people's hands, hug about 40 people. Saying whatever. Right. My my people, my friends or whatever, they tease me all the time. They like, man, we gotta go. Right, because I interact with everybody, right? I know a lot of people, right? And I don't I'm just that person. I'm just I'm it's Southern Hospital.

SPEAKER_01

I could imagine about you and Pocky. That'd be about I'll be out there all day long. Yeah, just shaking hands on each other zero.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, right, right. Southern hospitality, I tell people all the time, we ain't clutch with each other. Right? So we you know, we we we welcome people in, right? And one thing I hate is when I see all these people and I don't have nothing to sell them or give them or invite them to. That bothers me. At the end of the night, when I go home, I'll be like, dang, all them people I talk to, and they all wanna know. They're like, what you doing? What's what you got coming up? When's this? When's the next this? When's the next that? Right? And I'm like, man, are you still doing those RB Sundays? No, we we not still doing them, right? Yeah, we're not still doing that.

SPEAKER_02

I was hoping you were gonna say that because I'm wondering. Oh, okay, yeah, right. So you need to bring them back.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so based off of that, my mind is running. Like, my mind is running, right? Because the music is an aspect of my life, but like we spoke about what with Ryan, what you're doing beyond the game, yeah. Yeah, beyond the game, right? What else do you have going on, right? Uh, because as a creative, I always gotta be creating, creating something, right?

SPEAKER_02

That's your art, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So here we are, uh beginning of pandemic, 2022, and I know what me and my friends like to do when we hang out, right? We like to, as long as we got great cocktails and good music, we good. We don't have to be in no big club on the strip or whatever. We could turn any room into a vibe, right? And I realized like this, these things that we do, people love this. Like, this is the cool stuff, right? It's the cool stuff. So I was like, I gotta come up with something to do, right? Wasn't no shows, I couldn't do no shows. Oh, yeah, because the pandemic. Yeah, right. We was we was just sitting there, and there was a few places still opening, there was a few things still going, but it was still very like no. So I was sitting there one day and watching the versus battles. You know, they had the watching the versus battle, and I was like, you know what? People always talk about how they love 90s RB music. Any argument about RB, people be like, oh, the 90s was the best, da da da da da da da da da da, right? People be like, oh well, I like the early 2000s, da da da. It's always that argument. So I was like, you know what? I should do an all RB night. Now, in my mind, when I'm thinking this, I'm thinking of a one-off. Like just do it one time and then say we did it, and it was dope. Everybody came and had a great time. In the midst of me doing this, my partner, she's like, she's my best friend. Her name is uh Melissa Color Melly Mill, but she's like my chief of staff. She handles everything in my life outside of you know personal stuff, like personal stuff too, but that's that's my people or whatever, right? Uh but anyway, she I I hit her and I was like, you know what you think about this idea? And she could take my scattered brain idea and make it into a business, make it into something, right? I love her for that. She always does that very, very well. You know, she's ran nonprofits and things like that. So she's great with numbers, she's great with the business aspect. I'm just a creative. So if you want to know, if you got a business idea, what should I call it? Call RB.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_00

How should it look when was when they walk into the the the place? How should it look? Call RB, that type of stuff. But if you want to know, like, well, how can we uh, you know make

Building Lifestyle Sundays As An Experience

SPEAKER_00

money off this.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Hit me when y'all figure it out, right? Right. You'll hit me when y'all figure it out, right?

SPEAKER_01

So visionary, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, exactly. But I can paint the picture for you. Now I can make the I can paint a perfect picture for you.

SPEAKER_01

Make it excited. You just gotta do the checks and balances for financials is on you.

SPEAKER_00

Make it excited, and I can get people to be like, ooh, what's this? Right? That's my that's my thing. And I know my lane, so I stay in my lane. And I hit her and I told her the idea. She immediately got on it. She's like, okay, cool. We need a venue. So I'm like, okay, perfect, let me figure this out. And I ended up, you know, speed, because, you know, to get through the to the point, I ended up finding a venue. It was a lounge out here, a hookah lounge at the time, uh, by the name of Crave. Oh, Crave. Yeah. I had a relationship with one of the owners. And that one night we were out partying, going back to what I said about having something to sell or whatever. And I seen him. And we party and we're having a great time. That's the best time for me. Some people be like, oh, you don't want to talk business with nah. Or damn it. Yeah, me, let me let me holler at you real quick. Like, let's, you know, let's get this. Let's figure it out. Let's figure it out. And I got in him and I was like, yo, I got this idea, man. You know, all RB night, da-da-da-da-da. And he like, what? Because this place is booming. He don't need me. So I said, look, man, I pitched him the idea, and he was like, okay, that's different. He was like, what night would you want? I said, what's your slowest night? That's to show him. Nah, I'm finna put in the works. What's your slowest night? He said, Well, I don't have really nothing on Sundays. It was one other day, but I remember I was like, ooh, Sundays. I was like, okay, those are my usually my self-care Sundays, but I'm like, we can make this, let me figure this out. So I'm like, okay, Sundays, Sundays. All right. I said, give me one of your Sundays. Just one. Right? Let me let me formulate my people. I said, you ain't gotta do nothing. Just give us the space. We're gonna do everything. He was like, really? I said, give me a shot. He said, okay, I'll give you a shot. I said, give me about three, four weeks to promote, promote it, and then we're gonna come in. He said, Alright, I'll let you do it. I went back to Mel, Toler. I got my other partner, Dante, my boy Dio. I got him. Because these are the two people that I talk to the most, you know, during this time. These are people that's always around me that I'm with every day. And I went to them and I'm like, yo, this is what I want to do. Da da da da da. We got a venue Sunday. They're gonna give us Sunday. They was like, okay, okay, okay, what are we gonna call it? I was like, Lifestyle Sundays. Because this lifestyle ain't cheap, right? Okay, Lifestyle Sundays. And now she went, she made a video of all the things 90s. But she put it in black and white. So we're talking about Different World, Cosby Show, all these albums, videos, pictures, Apollo, anything you could think of from the 90s that would bring back that nostalgic feeling. She put it on like a reel. So in the venue, we would have it going, playing non-stop throughout the night. All the screens. On the screens. There you go. So now we're creating the vibe, right? Because you can go anywhere listen to RB music, but nobody was doing it yet. So let's make that point. I ain't saying I was the first. I ain't saying I'm Christopher Columbus with it.

SPEAKER_02

But I was the first.

SPEAKER_00

My team, our company's called Lifestyle Society. Me, Mel, and Dante, we was the first one to bring an all RB. Not like, oh, we're gonna give you an RB hour.

SPEAKER_02

To Vegas? Yes. Okay. To Vegas. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

And in a venue like that. Nobody was doing that. Now, you may have done one, they probably had somebody that did it maybe once here, but not like an actual, oh, you finna do an all RB night?

SPEAKER_01

Like it was like just playing the, maybe just music was just playing, but it wasn't an experience.

SPEAKER_00

Like the actual, like the fire of you seeing now how you're talking about.

SPEAKER_02

So you know when you go in there, you're gonna violate.

SPEAKER_00

You see now everybody posts, oh, RB Mondays, RB Tuesdays. Man, we started that. We started that.

SPEAKER_02

You started that right in the pan, like right when the pandemic was coming out.

SPEAKER_00

2022, August 8th, if I'm not mistaken. The day we started August 8th, 2022, right? So now we we we we formulated everything. I brought in everything. I brought in my own DJ. Shout out to Jay Crazy and uh my boy uh DJ Mil D Miles. I brought my own DJs in, right? I brought, we had our own uh RSVPs. So we booked our own tables. I asked him, send me a copy of your floor plan. We booked our own tables. He didn't have to do nothing but just let us in the venue.

SPEAKER_02

So how long did you guys do it for?

SPEAKER_00

We did it for about a year, close to like a year, right? We did it for like a year. Yeah, yeah, close to that, like towards the end of the year, we end up because now everything's starting to open back up and things like that. A lot of stuff was going on in the city with hookah lounges, the city was making it harder on them. Yeah, it was a lot of stuff that was going on. I don't want to talk about the negative stuff that was going on.

SPEAKER_02

Well, you ended up bringing it back, or that was one of one of those.

SPEAKER_00

No, we didn't we we didn't bring, you know, and it's crazy. We we were about to bring it back. Okay we were, we were about to bring it back, but we ended up uh not because it was so watered down at that point. Okay, we had did it anyway. And this is what we were doing. We were bringing in every Sunday a different RB artist from back then. So we had the group next, R L now. I love that. We had them, we had Bobby V. My boy there, my boy Bobby Valentino. We had him come in. And then we so we were doing that with it. We were doing artists on Sundays, either coming in, hosting, or coming in performing, and it just took off.

SPEAKER_03

Man, that's a great time. That sounds fun.

SPEAKER_00

Numbers to show for. If I if I tell you what type of numbers we were doing in that very, you know, not too large venue, because we wasn't on the strip. Do all the strip, yeah. Yeah, marquee or nothing.

SPEAKER_02

We were, you know, off the strip. I like it when it's off though. Yeah, because I prefer it. That's the reason why I'm I'm keep hitting on say like a third time. I want you to bring it back because that's the type of stuff we need. Just because a lot of the locals, we don't want to go to the strip. Yeah, exactly. You know what I mean? So it's it's great to be able to have that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, just finding like a creative way to do it. Because, like I say, we did it in a way that it wasn't new and fresh. It wasn't just an all RB night, it was a 90s RB night with all the the classics that you remember. You step into the place, you see all the stuff, everybody was looking, like, oh my god, man.

SPEAKER_01

I think you'd be excited about you is changing the maybe not just RB, changing different nostalgia's pieces and navigating different venues. And I think that's where you could kind of find almost like you know, people follow a like a food truck, this hype right now. You hide change it up, and what's the experience gonna be at different locations? That'd be a function.

SPEAKER_00

Like a canvas, man. Yeah, exactly. People always be like, oh, Vegas I have a culture. I think we have a lot of culture. It may not be the culture of a lot of other cities and what you think, but I think there is a lot of culture. It's gotten better for sure.

SPEAKER_02

It's an international hub, man. You got so much, you got so much. It is a blank canvas, you're right.

SPEAKER_00

There's so many things that you can do. It's gotten better.

SPEAKER_02

It's got a lot better. It's got a lot better. Compared to when I moved here in 07. I feel like it's a it's a different world and we got more industry. We got so many different things that are here at this time. And people have been here longer. Yeah, way longer. They're not just been transient.

SPEAKER_00

I've watched I've watched a lot of places fail because they came to Vegas and they thought they could just hire a marketing company.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00

Like, you don't know how many of these places I've sat down with meetings with and told them. Yeah, they like, well, we hired this marketing company. They're looking at numbers and demographic. I was like, man, that ain't gonna reach me.

SPEAKER_01

No, that demographic's gonna be gone next year. So we gotta, it's gonna be a whole different uh feel here.

SPEAKER_00

Every time I go to a dope spot, a restaurant or whatever on like a weekend and it's empty and it's prime time. I I I get to asking them, like, what y'all do for like, yo, like how do people know or find out about y'all?

SPEAKER_02

How you get them, how you getting butts and seats, man, for real. Yeah, like I got one last question for you as far as just business and life advice, man. What's just one nugget you would you would leave you know our listeners with as far as your visionary branding? What's just something simple nugget for them that's maybe it's an entrepreneur that wants to get their business uh off the ground?

SPEAKER_00

Don't never tone it down. Don't tone it down. Don't tone it down. I think that I know the the humble and meek shall inherit the earth. I understand all of that, but uh in this day and time, that's not gonna get nobody's attention. And I'm not saying do anything goofy or be like, you know, clout chasing or corny stuff. I'm not saying that, but I just mean like whatever business or industry that you're in, you gotta stand out. It's too much. Like, it's just so much here and there. It's too much going on. Like you have to find a way to give people something that uh they can't get here or there, right? You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01

I think that's a good you know analogy because I think what happens sometimes, like, you know, what's the guy's name, the the YouTuber? It doesn't say one word, but he stands out. So it's not about being the loudest person. Talking about the dude that does all the so it's not always about being uh like the the how do you how do you stand out?

SPEAKER_00

And you have to do it in a way that it doesn't feel like a gimmick. Yes, exactly. You know what I mean? Because then it's like we look at you like, come on, you play it out. Yeah, so it has to be something that's authentic to you because you realize, right? We like me and my friend, we have a lot of slang that people don't use, right? So, but to us, it's just the way we talk, right? So, but when we put out content and stuff, people are like, oh, this is dope. Like, oh, y'all feels right for that. It feels right for our theme. Yeah now versus us trying to chase y'all thing and do it, then that kind of makes it lose luster. It's not, it's not it's not the same. It's one of those things where it's like nah we ain't we involving this. I'm my my motto is never, you know, don't ever turn it down, man. Always keep it, yeah, keep it up here and you know, and do it your way. And real to you. Yeah, make it unique in that way, make it very creative.

SPEAKER_02

That's what's up.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Last question as far as food. We always ask everybody, what's your favorite restaurant in Vegas? Give it give us one, that one gym.

SPEAKER_03

One?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, just one. Just one gym.

SPEAKER_03

Just one.

SPEAKER_02

So no, you've been in Vegas unique to just because I I know that one gym is gonna be fire. So that's why that's why I only want you to give us one. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Uh, because we got this thing where we say, go for the vibe, stay for the food. Uh huh.

SPEAKER_02

Go for the vibe, stay for the food. Yeah, go for the vibe, stay for the food.

SPEAKER_00

We we be on that type of time. I like that. Um, you know, I don't even eat meat, right? Vegan? Yeah, yeah. 25 years.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00

So very long time, right? Okay. Uh, so my spot is Chef Kenny's.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah, Chef Kenny's. That's my go-to. He's a friend of mine. Yeah, he's awesome.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's my spot. But our spot for what I want to give as my gym is uh carver steak.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah. So for a vegan, do you like carver steak is your go-to?

SPEAKER_02

Because they have a vegan, they have vegan, they have vegan steak. I did not know that. Yeah, vegan steak is. That's at Resorts World? Yes. I've only been there one time.

SPEAKER_01

That's probably my top favorite restaurant in Vegas.

SPEAKER_02

Really? But I had to say that. I don't want to hate all carver steak. I ain't gonna say that, but we I'm a believer to load. So we'll talk offline, but that's good.

SPEAKER_00

But but that's what that's right now, like I said.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, that's what changes.

SPEAKER_00

And you know, obviously, it changed. Well, it changed about a year, not about a month.

SPEAKER_02

I gotta say one place for you, not to cut you off. Is that a Tacoterian?

SPEAKER_00

Of course.

SPEAKER_02

Regina, we I gotta give a shout out to Regina. I love Taco Terrier. Regina Simmons we have so and so.

SPEAKER_00

Let me tell you something. I was at the original Taco Terians grand opening when they were Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02

They're they're all I love that. That's one of my favorite spots. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And they're not even focused on vegan. Exactly, right, right. Focus on everybody. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Right, right. I cut you off.

SPEAKER_02

You want to say one more place.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, because I'm a connoisseur, right? Okay. I'm I'm more I'm a vibe person too, right? Okay. So our spots that we regularly are at, Toko Madeira, Tokamadeira's always good. Yeah, of course, Wally's. Yeah, these are conversation pieces. Yeah, like get them saying that is always good. Man, we we have the best time.

SPEAKER_02

I've never had a bad meal there. It's always good. Yeah, it's always good. There you go. Yeah, it's always good. You're right. It's always good. They always got DJs. I think last time we went there, Queen Latipa was in there. Oh, really? Yeah, that's funny. So, but you're right. I'm kind of like a lush.

SPEAKER_00

So the Greeks, man. We we be in there for the vibe, and the time can just fly. Yeah, yeah. Uh they got the mushroom tacos. Oh man, Tokyo's. We're with it. And Tokas is always a vibe, though. Yeah, it's always fun. You don't feel like you're in a restaurant, even walking into it, it feels good.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

They got great energy when you first walk in. Yep, yeah, it's just got a whole ambiance, and then you're walking back. And I've been to the one obviously in Vegas, and then I went to the one in Beverly, uh, West Hollywood area. Okay. It's got the two-story one. It was it was tight too. It's over there or there. Yeah, gotcha. So you give them some jamps and food.

SPEAKER_00

I think a lot of places get a little too touristy for me for sure. Sometimes once they become popular, they get a little too touristy.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, but they don't orchestrate the room right. You don't feel like you're at a restaurant. You feel like they want to get you in and out but make it look fancy.

SPEAKER_00

Right. So it kind of declined to that way.

SPEAKER_02

The food uh and you said Wiley's.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's a resort too.

SPEAKER_02

I have not been there yet. I gotta go there. I met one of the guys that's one of the somigliers there. I gotta check I gotta check Wiley's out.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. I mean, because I'm an ambiance person. You know, I never been there. Ambiance gotta be right. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I'm gonna go check that one out. I've never been there. I don't know if carving steak is on that list, I'm gonna go because that's my one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_00

I'm talking about Carmen Steak, man. Because what I like about Carmen Steak is it's very uh the host the hospitality.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I went there for my anniversary, I think. They brought like a whole thing. They got a whole presentation. It's rich.

SPEAKER_00

Like, you know, when you ask them a question, they don't just give you a one-word answer. Like they very strike. Yeah,

Don’t Tone It Down And What’s Next

SPEAKER_00

they got okay, so I'm gonna give you the dish to try for people who don't eat meat. Please try that calamari. They have a vegan calamari. I know it's probably gonna sound crazy till I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_02

I'm telling you, I'll let I'll Chef Kenny, I'm don't sound crazy because what Chef Kenny can create. Yeah, I know we're talking about different restaurants. Right, right, exactly. Right, right.

SPEAKER_00

And I'll let everybody who eats meat try that calamari and they'd be like, ooh, so I'm gonna have to go there with you because I don't think I'm gonna order it by myself. But if uh they have a specific uh vegan menu with vegan options on it. I mean it's not a cool menu, but it has a lot of stuff on there. I would never have thought that. Yeah, you should try the calamari. Calamari and the vegan steak, like those two.

SPEAKER_02

That's pretty awesome. I have no idea. I'm gonna, yeah, definitely. Give us some gems. What else is what else is next for you?

SPEAKER_00

All right, so musically. Okay. All right, so my last project came on Valentine's Day of uh 25, and I'm currently right now in the studio working on my my newest album. Okay. The last album was called Worst Case Scenario, and came from like a quote that I came across. It was like worst case scenario, I just end up a lonely millionaire, right? And so to explain what that means, right? It has nothing to do with money, right? It was just that I had a birthday come around and I was looking at my life and I was like, you know what? I don't have no wife, I don't have no kids, right? Majority of my, you know, my my friends and everyone, they do, right? But I was like, I don't feel like I don't feel that void. I don't feel like something's missing, which is important because a lot of people do it just because, oh, that's what I supposed to do. That's the list. Graduate from college, get married, have kids. Like they they get so wrapped up into that that if something doesn't work, now they're like, ah, my life is over, right? But it's like, are you happy though? Yeah. What's happiness for you, right? So for me, I was like, man, I'm looking at my life and I'm like, hey, I empty. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

I'm good with this.

SPEAKER_00

I was like, if worst case scenario, I mean, I just be pursuing the things I love, right? So that was like the theme what pursued me to make that project, right? So when we came to this project, this album is called Nobody Knows This Too. This is exclusive right here. Give it to the project. Yeah, this album is going to be called All My Heartbreaks, right? All My Heartbreaks. All My Heartbreaks, right? And this project is inspired by like I started looking at the journey of getting to this place, right? Because obviously I've been through things, right? So I speak on those things. Like, why I don't have a wife and I don't have kids, right? Because it's not like I walk around like, oh, I'm against it, I'm anti-those things. But it's like, well, this situation happened that led me to this, this happened, that led me to that, right? So we have records about that. I have a I have a song called Right Woman, Wrong Time. Yeah, I have I have a song called Uh I'm Ready to Settle Down. Uh these are records that I'm wrong with you.

SPEAKER_02

You're gonna give me a trouble, man. Listen to that, man.

SPEAKER_00

Man, but but but but it's so logical. These are, and I'm not writing songs out the sky. I'm writing about life. These are things that I yeah, like this is you know, real, real, real, because that happens, right? Yeah, like that happens, right? And I and I love to sit around and talk about these things, like relationships and stuff like that, because it inspired records, you know. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, you fall in love with a songwriter, you'll live forever, right? So I'm writing.

SPEAKER_01

That's a good possible one. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

You killed a serious though. It took me a second to register that. I was like, Oh, yeah, that was smooth, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It's real though. 100%, yeah. Literally write about my experiences. I go through things with people and I, you know, whatever. I don't see it.

SPEAKER_01

Just don't get on the wrong side of Taylor Swift. That's the problem. Don't get the right side of Taylor Swift, sure. You have a little infamy over there.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's crazy, right? Yeah, I write I write about those things, right? You have to, you know, you have to speak on those things because I think there's some, I'm not the only one, right? So I I don't only speak about my heartbreaks. Like when I got my heartbroke, I speak about the time I broke someone's heart, and I wasn't what I was supposed to do. You know, I got a record called uh the reason women cheat. Yeah, like I I get I So you're going after. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm unbiased. I gotta speak on both sides of it because come on, that's life, right? It's not just one way, right? We all at some point.

SPEAKER_01

We've been on both sides of the story.

SPEAKER_00

You've been on both sides of the story, right? That's that's real. That's how you gotta look at it. So yeah, so we we the the record is um When is it gonna come out? Yeah, I was gonna say, so it's already uh I've already done the the the hard part. Okay. The writing and the music and things like this. So we were we're in a recording process right now, okay. Uh laying the records down, recording, doing the vocals and things like that. So I should be ready. It's gonna be spring for short. So I should be ready probably in another another month, another month. Okay. You know, awesome. That's exciting. Okay. It's it's it's it's gonna go on. Yeah, yeah. It's gonna be cool. The rollout's gonna be different and everything, too. So that's what's up. Okay. And then uh lastly, I would say on that too, which is controversial, but I'm putting it out there because I want people to tune in. But I have a the last record that's on that album is called Letter to R. Kelly. Right. So it's a it's a that's interesting. I'm careful.

SPEAKER_01

That's that's gonna be a Chicago.

SPEAKER_00

So when you see the when you see the track list, Letter to R. Kelly, go to this. Yeah, what is this about? You get what I'm saying? Speaking about my heartbreaking, I'm interested in hearing what you gotta say about that. R. Kelly was extremely talented. Absolutely, absolutely, right, right. Extremely and so who's brave enough to speak on it and really, you know, discuss it? Like it's a real serious conversation, man. That if you put it in song form, people gonna listen.

SPEAKER_01

Makes it more relatable, understandable.

SPEAKER_02

There's a reason why this brother called R and B. Letter to R. Kelly, man. Shout out to you, man. What's your social handles people can reach out to you?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so my uh all my social handles uh is at R B, A-R-E-N-B-E, at R and B. Everything's R B Williams, my uh first and last name, social media, Instagram, yeah, yeah, all my all my sites that I use and things like that. So you can find me. Find me on the video.

SPEAKER_02

Appreciate you, man. Appreciate you connecting. Shout out to Ron Johnson for connecting us, man. Yeah, Ron, that's funny. Salute what you're doing, and if you really like R B music, you you saw a little taste of him just giving us a little glimpse early. He can say, yeah, he can. I wasn't even right, right, right.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that album is out right now. Uh, you know what I'm saying? Please uh check that out. Worst case scenario, the single from that album is called Hella Dates. Yeah. So that got like a lot of traction and things like that. Good names, boy.

SPEAKER_02

You got some good names, brother. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Check us out at the Vegascircle.com and I appreciate your time, brother. Thank you very much for that. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00

I appreciate y'all for having me. Great stuff, man. Good stuff.